BW 4: Sudden Death
by Karra Greenfield
Summary: With the window of time to set the future growing shorter by the nano-click, both sides become desperate to win at any cost.
1. Ch 01: A Not So Optimal Situation

As Ruby came to she heard both Megatron and Rampage screaming in pain amidst the rushing air of the storm around them. Inside her torso armor she felt a terrible throbbing, one pain overwhelming the rest she felt as she rested one hand on the orb on her chest. Looking over at Rampage first she saw him struggling on his knees, flickering between two different forms as he both laughed and screamed in pain. She quickly checked on Megatron, who was behind her at this point. The tyrant was holding his head as his own form shifted violently from his current robotic body to his dragon form to his Transmetal one state then to his pre-Transmetal and back to one of the others.

Looking down at her left hand, she was rather surprised to find that she wasn't shifting herself, but then she focused down at the half orb on her torso plating. The device that kept her from becoming erased in Megatron's altered future kept the time storm from the affecting her. Looking back up at Megatron, who was now on his knees with the pain, she realized that now would be the best opportunity to end his threat. Her energy weapons were useless but if she could reach her gatling gun she might have a chance. The storm began to ease away as she slowly crawled over to her weapon, wincing at the twitching in her torso. Dinobot's spark apparently was still being affected by the current time flux. If she could just reach her weapon she could take Megatron out in his weakened state.

As his body finally settled into one form, Megatron took the time to wait out the pain as he focused intently on the ground. It seemed so much closer now than it had before but a quick check of his hands and body confirmed solidly as to why. He was back in his Transmetal one state. A satisfied rush washed over him as he stood back up onto his feet.

"Oooh, yes!" the tyrant laughed, "Victory _will_ _be_ mine!" With a quick look around he found the wounded Maximal reaching out for her weapon in a desperate hope, her fingers just barely brushing along its grip but still too far away for her.

Ruby heard the powerful steps of her enemy's approach and scooted a bit more to be able to grab her weapon. Unfortunately something sharply gripped around her left wrist as she just began to wrap her fingers around the grip and yanked her painfully off the ground. Megatron swung her through the air before he had her dangling just a hair's breath from his face.

"Foolish Maximals," he spoke darkly, but the viciousness of his satisfied smile could cut with how sharp it was. "I understand the error from so long ago now, yeess. Dinobot must have come back and taken over his new body, leading to his betrayal in my moment of ultimate triumph. But now instead of repeating history he chose to nestle himself into the bosom of his lover."

Ruby felt Dinobot's spark lurch in anger at the slight and narrowed her optics in anger as she realized that Megatron could be right. She couldn't let him think that though.

"I doubt that," she retorted, "I think this is a sign of your ultimate failure with the fact that you'll never reach the Ark to gain your upgrade from the original Megatron's spark."

"And how do you come to that conclusion, you worthless Maximal?" he ground out.

"Because I backed up Sentinel."

She might have been prepared for the violent shaking he had given her, knowing that Megatron would take his anger out on her in many painful ways if he thought she was telling the truth, but it still hurt what little bit of her body that wasn't damaged and shot pain through the rest that was. She swung limply like a rag doll by her arm as he lifted her back up to look her in the eye, painfully holding her by the back of her head.

"That is something that I will just have to remedy, isn't it?" he told her coldly, "But as for you, my little pest, today you die."

"You first," she retorted, suddenly jabbing her right palm up to his face. As soon as it connected to his cheek the blade she had tucked into her wrist compartment, yet another little trick she had picked up from her Uncle Rattrap, ejected out and buried itself into his optic sensor, "Check."

Megatron screamed in pain as he let her go, dropping her harshly to the ground as he covered his face with his left hand, his tail weaponry swinging around as that arm too moved up to protect his face. Ruby groaned a bit as she rolled to her side, slightly disturbed by the round optic sensor unit that stuck to her blade.

"You'll pay for that!" the tyrant screamed as he kicked her in the abdomen, sending her flying a short distance away before she tumbled wildly to a stop.

Her systems couldn't even power her enough to lift her head up, so she just closed her optics and focused inward. "Thank you for your help, Dinobot. It was an honor to fight with you again."

Rampage's body finally stabilized enough for him to catch Ruby being kicked into the air like a football. He knew that this wasn't the Megatron that held half of his spark under his control; not with the viciousness he was pouring into his attacks on the much smaller bot. Ruby's cries of pain were music to Ramapge's audio sensors but the source of the pain was making him angry. No sooner did he pull his rocket launcher into position he let loose all three rockets that were at the ready.

Megatron barely heard the scream of the rockets heading his way in time to turn right into them, sending him flying to the side and off of the cliff the Axalon currently rested on. The small lake splashed violently as he hit it like a boulder, the under currently quickly sweeping him away from his targets.

Rampage slowly made his way closer, standing over Ruby as her damaged from sparked sporadically. With a care he had only showed one other, he set down his weapon and gently scooped the tiny thing into his hands. When her optics blinked back online he just looked into them.

"That was fun, my sweet," he let his relish over the events pour through is voice, "but your battle is not over. Go into stasis lock, sleep. Let your companions find you."

"I … have to back up Sentinel," she mumbled, noting the cresting dawn slowly bathing him in its light.

"Your spark cannot wait for that."

There was a plea from inside of her, the pulse from Dinobot's spark urging her to do the same. With a soft sigh, Ruby powered off her optics. "Computer," she whispered, "activate stasis lock."

"Acknowledged."

Her form finally relaxed as the pain suddenly faded away, head rolling back onto Rampage's arm.

As he stood up, the mad Predacon noticed that Tarantulas' little army of walking flashlights were crawling all over the area, picking up the pieces of the Predacon to take to a central location. The sudden voice in his ear made him frown viciously.

"_Attention all Predacons. Pull yourselves together, our situation has altered."_

As the other two found their pieces, he slowly walked over to the Axalon, gently laying her on the ground nearby since he could not access the ship directly, and he did not want her harmed as Megatron finished giving his orders.

"Rest up, my little toy," he said as he settled her form on the rocky ground, "Your training begins the next time we meet."

* * *

Rhinox paced in front of where they had set up the CR chamber in the cavern surrounding the Ark. It had taken them the whole day, but they were able to salvage what they could of their former base and relocate it to their new home. Cheetor and Optimus had found her laying nearby where their ship once rested, badly damaged once more. Somehow she had made it back to the base in time for another vicious battle.

Glancing over at the chamber door as he stopped the Maximal engineer pondered what events might have been changed that day but quickly pushed them to the side. It didn't matter and focusing on all of the 'what if's' of the situation would drive him crazy.

Optimus, now quite large from the unintended upgrade from protecting Optimus Prime's spark, quietly stepped closer to his dear friend, "How is she?"

Rhinox had looked up as he heard Primal approaching, his frown deepening at the question. "Her spark has a lot of trauma from the battle. It looks like she had figured out how to bypass my programming block."

Primal frowned as well, bothered by the events of the day as well as his concern over his crew deepening the motion. "That is troublesome. What about the optic device we found on her blade?"

"Scans shows that it does belong to … him." A quick look around to assure that they did not have extra ears to listen in, he continued. "The data from it is troublesome. It exactly matches 'him' as he is now. He might be able to interact with the other Predacons as long as he avoids himself."

Optimus wasn't sure if this day could get any worse, and leave it to Rhinox to take what little wind out of their sails that they had gained from their hard earned victory, but better to know the ugly truth as soon as possible so they could face it head on. Watching his friend closely as he looked back at the CR chamber and the little bot it contained, the commander knew there was more.

"There's something else, isn't there?" he asked quietly.

Apparently it wasn't something Rhinox could find the words for, so he brought up the information for Primal to read. During her initial scan before repairs their systems detected a second spark that was dependent on her systems. It took him a few cycles to actually find the words, knowing that he had a surprised, probably shocked, look on his face. The idea was something he really honestly didn't want to think about.

"Um … congratulations?" he offered, not sure how Rhinox was really taking the idea of becoming a Great-Grandsparker before he actually began that line.

"That is one possibility," the engineer conceded.

"What's the other?"

"Starscream."

It took Primal a nano-click, but his optics widened a bit as he looked back at the chamber. "That would explain quite a bit, actually, but we'll have to wait and see." Then he suddenly smirked down at the Maximal that not earlier in the day towered over him, "Which would you prefer?"

The sudden pondering he experienced was enough of an ice breaker for Rhinox to relax, letting him chuckle a bit. "We all miss him, especially Rattrap, but I don't know how long her systems could continue to support his spark without adverse side effects. If it _is_ the other possibility then she'll need our help. A war is no place to raise a sparkling. Either way we're going to have to find a blank protofom and soon."

* * *

Megatron fumed as he stomped around in his beast mode, the cavern echoing his angry footsteps painfully around him. His returned form granted him more freedom, but he still risked too much if he exposed himself openly. He needed repairs to replace his missing optic sensor but he could not access the Darkside to do so. His younger self had set up security measures to prevent his older self from accessing the ship at any given time. "Curse my constantly paranoid state of mind!"

The familiar buzzing that was approaching calmed the torrent tyrant, letting a smile creep slowly over his muzzle. He still had a way of influencing events still to come and Waspinator was going to happily go along. If he could ever get Inferno, one of his two most loyal of his crew, into his plans then the future would once again be his.

Waspinator transformed as he landed outside the mouth of the cavern, once again sent as a liaison between the huge dragon creature and Megatron, and cautiously entered. The stomping that greeted him was still loud, but it held nowhere near the impact that it had that first night he had come to the cavern. What shocked Waspinator this time was he was now standing face to face with Megatron himself.

"Megatron?" the winged Predacon asked, confusion making him scratch the back of his head. "Waspinator following orders, come to cave to talk to future-bot like Megatron asked. Why Megatron here?"

"Ah, Waspinator, my _best_ of my troops," Megatron began, smiling to himself as he thought, _Best as a shield, yeess._ "As you can see, your influence has already began to turn the tide back to a Predacon victory, yeess. Our victory is now even closer at hand, but there are still a few more … small matters to attend to."

* * *

Waspinator surged upright on the work table that had been the resting place of his new body. Slowly he looked down smiling privately at the almost completely finished form, but he was confused as to why he was in it now. There was also the puzzle of the wires that was running from his opened torso plate. His optics followed the trail to find that the other end attached to the red device attached to Rhinox's torso plate. The Maximal was sitting beside him, but was focused on the smaller work table he was facing, something slowly forming under his diligent hands.

"Waspinator feel like he been run over by Optimus Primal," he said quietly when Rhinox looked over at him.

"The temporal storm from when Megatron attempted to kill Optimus Prime affected you during the spark transfer," the Maximal explained, "We'll have you stabilized and mobile soon."

Slowly turning himself to face his partner, being careful not to tug on the wires, Waspinator simply watched Rhinox work, understanding why the Maximals had always had such a regard for him. He was able to turn what others thought of junk and scrap and utilize it for a brand new purpose a thousand times better than it had been in its previous life. As they sat in the relative quiet, Waspinator closed his optics and let his new memories fall into place.

"Squirrel-bot is alive," he told Rhinox after a moment, doing his best not to jump for joy.

Rhinox nodded, but gave his partner a tired smile. "My memories altered as well. She took out his eye, but it was hard earned."

"Megatron change back from Dragon-bot."

"I know, and that does not bode well for us."

* * *

For once she wouldn't complain about being forced onto light duty, using the extra time it gave her to unpack both her and Dinobot's belongings into her new chamber. Choosing one of the many alcoves within the cavern, Ruby was rather pleased by the view. She could sit at her desk and look out at the Ark itself. They all described its magnitude in their own way, each seeing it from a different aspect, but they all painted the same picture in her mind. She was just disappointed that her mind didn't put it into as sharp of detail as what was before her. With a shrug she smiled it off as she went back to work. She now could cherish the historical view herself.

Her hands smoothed over the hide decoration from the first clone of Dinobot, the one he had hanging in his room for so long until she had taken it down. Now it hung on the wall over her recharging berth. Stepping back with her hands on her hips, Ruby nodded her approval before she went digging back into boxes.

Things were stressful at the base, between the loss of the Axalon and Black Arachnia joining them because she was needing their protection from Megatron, things never quite began to calm down. She knew how happy the former Predacon made their Fuzor so she would be openly supportive of her staying with them.

With a tired sigh, Ruby sat down at her desk and began to work again with the batch of clay she currently had just lumped to the side. They were about to gain a new piece to their game, she just didn't know how to begin putting the description they had given her into clay form.

Optimus had some respect for Depth Charge, despite the arguments they had had over what was to be done with Protoform-X, but their commander always had a thread of respect for even the most difficult among them. The one consensus she had from everyone was that he had rare moments of kindness, but otherwise was extremely rude and completely focused on the hunt of the dangerous Predacon, even risking the lives of his comrades to gain his revenge. She never could decide who was the better monster out of the two.

"Find out soon enough, won't we?" she asked the clay, and her companion that was close to her spark. The trouble she saw coming was how Depth Charge could make her deal with Rampage more dangerous than it already was.

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.**

Well, here we are at the start of Season 3.


	2. Ch 02: Deep Trouble

Being stuck at base stunk! Granted there was quite a bit that the Maximals all focused on to get their new base up and operational, but being forbade from leaving the mountain, by not only Optimus Primal but Rhinox as well, left her feeling uneasy and restless. She openly did her flips off of the walls, or sometimes Optimus if she was stuck at the bridge area with him. Granted Ruby kept pretty busy with helping Rhinox trying to get the main computer systems operational, but she knew that her Megatron was out there cooking up all sorts of mischief and that he needed to be taken out soon.

There was no way to check in with Rampage, as odd of a notion that was, to inquire if he had run into the half blind trouble maker. There were also all sorts of little 'tests' that the Megatron, the one that belonged to this timeline, kept having his troops run on their base to assess what the Maximals had in the way of defenses that kept settling the most sickening feeling in the pit of her energon pump. 'He' would realize soon enough that she was bluffing about backing-up Sentinel. She had even attempted to recreate the program but found it elusive. Guess there were just some things that she didn't take after her Grand-sparker after all.

_Gotta focus on that later,_ she told herself as she stood with most of the others as they chatted while Depth Charge was being repaired in their CR chamber. Silverbolt and Black Arachnia were on outside guard duty.

"Sowah, who is dis herring anyway?" Rattrap asked, for some reason standing right next to Ruby in their little gathering. She found it quite odd that he seemed to be almost guarding her as of late.

"Depth Charge was in charge of security for Colony Omicron," Optimus informed them, "Protoform X escaped there, and leveled the colony."

"Only Depth Charge survived," Rhinox filled in, giving them all a grim reminder at how dangerous Rampage truly was.

Optimus continued, "From then on Depth Charge hunted Protoform X. After four stellar cycles he brought him back to Cybertron. He asked the High Counsel to find a way to destroy his spark."

"They turned him over to us instead," Rhinox once again filled in details." Depth Charge wasn't too happy with the decision."

"Eh, so he's got a lotta angst," Rattrap squeaked a bit, "De question is: 'How'd he get 'ere?'."

"Repair cycle complete," the ever helpful computer voice interrupted, the system giving a couple dull chimes afterwards.

"Now's our chance to ask," the engineer replied as he moved to shut down the repair chamber.

The CR chamber hissed, coolant cooled air pouring out in a bit of a low cloud over the rocky ground it rested on as the door split apart and opened for its occupant. Depth Charge looked around a bit to get his bearings before he stepped out of the chamber and looked around again. He was a bit shocked as his optics fell onto the Maximal leader towering before him.

"What the pit are you?" he asked, his tone a bit challenging.

Optimus looked at his hand, realizing that he did look a bit odd now. "I guess I've changed since we last met, Depth Charge."

"Primal," the sizeable Maximal recognized the voice instantly.

His shock over finding really the last bot he wanted to see ever again in his lifetime quickly faded as his computer system alerted him that Protoform X still functioned. With another look around, Depth Charge wasted no time in trying to find the way out of the strange looking base. Before he could go much further ever cheerful Cheetor stepped forward in an attempt to make the newest Maximal feel welcome.

"I'm Cheetor. Thanks for pulling me out of the water."

Not wanting to waste time on pleasantries, the manta ray based fighter grumbled as he gave the kid a cold stare."Go chase a mouse," he snapped before he back handedly shoved the scout out of his way, leaving a rather shocked kid blinking in surprise over the sudden change from the bot he briefly met after the dunking he received.

"Whoo-hoo!" Rattrap chuckled, "Talk about rude."

"You know it's an issue if Rattrap thinks it's a problem," Ruby quipped.

"'ey!"

Rhinox wasn't sure what shocked him the most, Rattrap's comment or the fact that Ruby's snarky remark was surprisingly accurate.

"Depth Charge," Primal called out.

Not yet finding the way out, Depth Charge quickly rounded back on Optimus. "Why are you here, Primal?" he challenged.

"We were about to ask you the same thing," Primal replied, his troops flanking around him to hear the answer.

"I have no idea. Some kind of anomaly trashed my ship," a bit of his old self peeked through for a moment before his anger boiled back up, "I was searching the galaxy for _your_ mistake."

"We have bigger problems here, Depth Charge," Primal challenged right back.

"Good," Depth Charge replied, not taking the bait. "Then X is mine again."

"Wait!" Optimus called out as the argumentative Maximal turned to leave again, only to be the focus of the pain he was feeling.

"Back off, Primal! You blew it! Just like I told the High Counsel you would."

Ruby groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Children please stop fighting," she mumbled, making Rattrap quickly hold back his snicker.

Primal glared back at her for a moment and then looked back at Depth Charge as he began to walk away again. "Stubborn as ever."

"Let 'im go. De Preds'll change his mind," Rattrap spoke up before he turned to Cheetor in an attempt to cheer him up, "or make 'im into fish sticks." At least the scout cracked a bit of a smile.

"I don't like him much either, but he's still Maximal," their commander admitted, having had too many long arguments in the past with the difficult Maximal. He led the procession that followed Depth Charge as he attempted to leave the base.

Fortunately for them all Depth Charge had stopped suddenly at the surprising view before him, a view most Maximals would never assume to see in their lifetimes. The Ark, lit ominously by the lava, was the backdrop to what was left of the bridge section from the Axalon.

"It's the Ark, and this is Earth. You've traveled back in time," Rhinox kindly informed the shocked Maximal, who just stood there staring at the relic.

"Yeah, a few million stellar cycles back in time," Rattrap added, "and Megatron and his Preds are trying to slag the Autobots." Depth Charge focused back on the tiny Maximal, at least compared to himself; the news rather disconcerting.

"It's not a joke," Primal interjected. "We're in a war to save our own future, and we could use your help."

The plea was enough to shock Depth Charge back into his foul mood. "You want my help? I still have your first mess to clean up. Now where's the way out?"

"You'd still get plenty of chances to fight him, and yet you still want to bail?" Ruby crossed her arms. "You're such a slag-head."

Depth Charge waved her off, rather rudely to match her comment, as he walked off in the direction he saw the scrapes along the floor from the drag marks that had led from the make-shift bridge.

Cheetor stepped up to the other side of Rhinox, looking down at Rattrap as he asked, "What's with him?"

"Eh, probably rust," Rattrap muttered.

Primal still seemed intent on getting the newest Maximal to join them. "Depth Charge, let it go!" he called as he followed his target to the blast doors. "You're not responsible for what X did on Omicron and neither am I. Stop looking for revenge and do something to help."

"It's not revenge I'm looking for," Depth Charge answered darkly, "its justice."

"At what cost?" Ruby challenged, but simply stormed past both Primal and Depth Charge muttering how everyone just seems so eager to throw their sparks away. Taking her actions as her being 'kind' enough to show him the way out, Depth Charge simply followed her.

Primal sighed and turned back to the others behind him. "Open the doors."

Ruby let Depth Charge open the doors for her, and let him step out first, but she didn't wait to hear any more of the conversation. She was finally outside and she was going to take advantage of it. With the last bit of the two hard headed Maximals' conversation going on behind her, she transformed and jetted away.

As Ruby flew right past him, quickly followed by Depth Charge, Megatron peeked out from behind the grouping of rocks he liked to utilize when he was much younger, using his good optic to spy on the Maximal base. With a dark sneer he quickly saw through Ruby's bluff, but he would wait until his younger self confirmed the missing defense program.

As he saw the rest of the Maximals stepping outside of the base, he let his optic sensor zoom in on one particular Maximal. "You are a tricky one Ruby, yeess," he whispered darkly as his systems gave him the information about Rhinox as the non-Transmetal calmly looked up at Optimus as the Maximal leader spoke to his crew, "but let us see how much of a threat you really pose when I end your spark line … at the source."

* * *

Form and function worked together better than either one of them had hoped for. From where he stood watching, Rhinox nodded approvingly at how Waspinator adapted to the new body. The former Predacon was zipping around the large underground cavern they had found, utilizing the ruins of Kaon as a training ground to learn how best to use his new form. Zipping around, Waspinator quickly switched from his robot mode to his beast mode, looking more like a Transmetal in design with his sharp points from the flyer parts they scavenged accented with his original paint job. His wedge shaped beast head became his torso plating, much like his original design, but now it sported the dark red half-orb that the other time trapped fighters sported. With a playful back-flip as he transformed, the flier landed in front of Rhinox in his own robot mode.

"Waspinator love new body!"

"I'm glad you're happy with it. It certainly will be beneficial if we get caught in a skirmish," Rhinox replied as they began to walk away from the area. They walked in the dark in relative quiet for so long that Waspinator began to worry slightly.

"What Rhino-bot thinking?" he asked nervously. He had learned from working with Megatron that whenever he was with someone, and they had been quiet for too long, that they were usually intently focused on something that was bothering them. Megatron liked to talk quite a bit, but when the Predacon leader was quiet for a while it was usually a painful experience later on when he started talking again.

"I think we need to figure out a way to take down Megatron here," the Maximal said explained quietly. "Throw a Ratchet's wrench into the works here to help stop the bleeding and hopefully make things better until we know if Ruby is successful or not."

Waspinator looked down at the ground before him shamefully. Even though Rhinox constantly said he didn't blame him for the turn of events affecting her, he still felt guilty over the fact that he was as much to blame about how Cybertron turned out as Megatron was, if not more so. The sparkless drones surrounding them made it a very lonely place. Blinking his bright green optics, he had to smile as an idea hit him like one of Rattrap's shots to the aft.

"Waspinator have idea! Rhino-bot and Waspinator need capture drone-bots, make army to fight Megatron with!"

Rubbing his chin as he thought on the idea, Rhinox had to smile as it worked around in his processor. The idea of turning some of Megatron's own forces against him was quiet pleasant, but it still contained a few kinks in the plan. "Good idea, but there are a couple problems that I'm seeing with it though. I don't know if we would be able to reprogram them if we do capture some of them and, even if that's successful, we have no place to keep them until we're ready for attack."

"Sorry Waspinator gave Rhino-bot a bad suggestion," he said, his shoulders dropping in a defeated manner. At least Rhinox didn't yell at him or instantly dismiss the idea as soon as it came out of Waspinator's mouth.

"On the contrary, it's actually a pretty good idea," Rhinox patted his new friend's shoulder, making Waspinator look back up hopefully. "We just need to figure out how to make it work."

* * *

With a deep sigh, Ruby landed on a grouping of rocks nearby where Depth Charge had crashed his ship. The sunset glistened off of the slowly rolling ocean waves as the repetitive sound of the slosh of water on the shore became almost calmingly hypnotic, which helped ease her worry and stress. She understood the need for them all to be more protective of one another due to the recent loss of their base and the quick move into the mountain surrounding the Ark, but how could she end the threat she came back for if she was always stuck at the base?

"Give things a chance to calm down and Primal and Rhinox will relax enough to let you out," she reminded herself out loud. "It's not like they know something I don't."

"Are you sure about that, my sweet?"

Naturally the calmly sadistic voice sent a surge of panic through her systems, but Ruby did her best to calm down as she turned to face Rampage. Hiding her fear and surprise became nearly impossible when he suddenly leapt from the rocks above her, aiming to pin her down. She jumped free, taking to the air to circle around to land on the sand, facing him as he cackled madly as he headed her way again.

"What on earth are you doing?" she asked quickly, but slowly backed away as he came closer, "I thought we had a deal."

"And it was so much fun! You made it so easy to tell them apart." He laughed, leaping into the air to get closer to her much quicker.

The Maximal shouted in surprise as she transformed, but quickly found herself knocked onto her back. Being pressed into the sand Ruby was pushing up on his underside with her feet to keep him from completely trapping her while her hands struggled to keep his claws from snapping her head off. When he relaxed a bit of his weight she pulled up on his claws and used the momentum to roll backwards from under him. Unfortunately she wasn't built for the shifting ground like her opponent was and Rampage used that to his advantage, quickly scuttling after her as she struggled to gain her feet as she ran. Rampage quickly transformed before he grabbed his prey, using his larger form to pin her to the jagged rock formations around them.

Ruby shouted in pain, doing her best to focus past both it and the wildly pulsing sparks in her torso as she waited for Rampage to begin on what he had always promised her. She was cursing herself for relaxing too much with her trust of the mad Predacon and she could feel Dinobot also admonishing her for doing the same. Moments passed slowly without either one of them moving, so she risked looking up at him.

Rampage was just smiling down at Ruby, but it really wasn't a pleasant feeling that it instilled in her, especially when he began to whisper, "My dear, I realized how much help you really need. You fight extremely well, especially for your size, but even the second spark you carry within you knows that you're not strong enough for your personal vendetta. I must make sure that you survive _his_ attacks so that all your worry and fear will become focused solely on what _I'm_ going to do to you."

"Survive your fight with Depth Charge, then we'll talk," she mumbled.

As if on cue they both heard the angry call as Depth Charge approached, his intent clear in his voice as he flew at full speed directly at them. Rampage laughed as he turned to face his attacker, still holding onto Ruby around her midsection with one hand. The tiny Maximal struggled to break free, not really wanting to get in the middle of the impending scuffle. Things instantly slowed down as Depth Charge crashed into Rampage, Ruby swearing that she could see the air move in violent waves from the impact. The tiny Maximal got yanked along with the pair, Rampage's grip both a blessing and a cruse as it kept her from hitting the rocks again, but it put her right into the middle of the fight. As they separated Depth Charge transformed and drew his weapon; the mad Predacon climbed back to his feet as he kept his grip on her, pulling out his own weapon.

"Let her go, X!" Depth Charge demanded, horrible memories flooding through his processor at the sight, the head of security recalling one of the first times he came upon Protoform X during his vicious slaughter of Omicron. He had found X standing over several mangled bodies, one of the smaller Maximals hanging in his hand like a ragdoll.

"You wouldn't _dare_ fire on me, old friend. You might hurt her," Rampage teased, holding Ruby up in front of himself as she struggled in his grip. "I don't want my little toy broken," he gave a her a harsh squeeze, making her cry out in pain, "not just yet."

"I'm going to hurt you both if you don't let me go," she threatened, making Rampage laugh again.

"She doesn't give up," the Predacon quipped, suddenly dropping her and turning himself and his weapon more towards Depth Charge, "Just like you!"

"Get behind me!" Depth Charge ordered Ruby, who wasted no time in scrambling through the sand and running past the towering Maximal.

Neither of them waited for her to get to safety as they resumed their brutal fight. Ruby watched from the safety of the rocks, fuming to herself about how stupid she was with her complacent attitude with Rampage. "Yeah, yeah," she mumbled in reply to feeling Dinobot's agreement with her chide, "but I knew I would need help after your death." The sad, remorseful feeling that replied to her made her pout as she gently patted her torso armor where she kept him safe. "It's alright, don't feel bad."

The sun was already gone when Rampage suddenly began to convulse, his body dancing with an energon surge as he gripped his torso. Depth Charge screamed in anger when his target suddenly turned and fled, but instead of following the huge Maximal turned and marched over to where Ruby waited.

"What were you doing out here, runt?" he growled.

"Runt?" Ruby balked, then crossed her arms in anger as she stood on the rocks to at least look him in the optics. "It seemed like a nice, quiet place to think, and it was until Rampage jumped me."

"Yet another one of Primal's mistakes, letting little girls prance around when a danger is running free."

"Oh, come off it!" she yelled, bending over a bit as she balled her hands into fists at her sides, "You can't keep blaming Optimus for something that was nowhere near _his_ fault. Crash landing here is no more his fault than the test subject from Project: Immortal escaping from the science facilities on Omicron is yours." Depth Charge growled as he shot her a dark look, but she sighed and continued. "Just … get your head out of your tail-pipe, stop being a jerk, and listen for once."

"Whatever," Depth Charge mumbled before he transformed into his flying mode and shot off.

Ruby shook her head before she transformed herself and headed for home. The moon was shining brightly by the time she had returned. The guns, now manned by Cheetor and Rattrap, trained on her as she transformed and landed.

"'Ey!" Rattrap yelled down at her, "Nice ta 'ave ya back, Ruby."

She gave a tired wave up at her fellow Transmetal rodent, smirking a bit at the jealous jump in Dinobot's spark at the flirtatious tone the other Maximal had used. "Let me check in with Optimus and I'll get to my post."

She had not had a chance to get into the doors when they suddenly opened and a very worried looking Rhinox came out followed by an almost equally worried Optimus, who was also sporting a slight smirk when he glanced down at his friend.

"Where have you been?" Rhinox demanded instantly, making Ruby smile fondly at the worried tone she was use to hearing from him.

"Sorry," she apologized, "I just needed some fresh air. Y'all've been keeping me pretty confined in the base lately."

"That's because you shouldn't be taxing your systems right now, it's not healthy in your condition."

Ruby's optics widened painfully in shock as she tried to come up with some sort of viable excuse, mentally kicked herself for not realizing that the scans from the CR chamber would have picked up the second spark in her system. "Well, … um … you see," she began.

"Wait, what?!" Rattrap yelled down at them, both he and Cheetor quickly joining them.

She had curled in a bit with a wince as her other uncles joined the pair, realizing that she was only two shy from the usual group she was almost use to dealing with. How was she going to explain this one?

"What do you mean 'her condition', Rhinox?" Cheetor asked, looking as bewildered as Rattrap was.

The engineer sighed a bit as he rubbed his forehead. In his worry he had completely forgotten about trying to keep it a secret, but now that the cat was out of the bag, so to speak ... "During her repairs from when you and Optimus found her at the Axalon's crash site, the system had detected that she is supporting two sparks."

There was so much disappointment in his voice that it cut Ruby to the core. She had to tell them the truth, at least about that. "Rhinox, please, I can explain," she pleaded gently, "Dinobot-"

"It's Chopperface's?!" Rattrap practically screamed.

Ruby winced again, more from Dinobot's reaction than her own, but Cheetor and Rattrap were already discussing around her to Rhinox before Optimus gently interrupted.

"We all know that they shared a … certain bond, but that doesn't matter right now," the towering Maximal said gently as he focused on her, "but until we can find a blank Protoform, Ruby, you must stay at the base."

Closing her eyes and nodding, she knew that she had no room to argue. She only looked back up when she felt Rhinox gently placing his hand on her shoulder, like he use to do all those years ago when she was much younger and needed his guidance. His smile was as warm and soothing as she recalled it to be, filling her with peace.

"I'm sorry," she felt she had to apologize, "I can only imagine what you're thinking of me right now."

"Still proud of you, little one," he told her as he gently nudged her cheek with his knuckle, a gesture from so long ago, before he followed Optimus back into the base.

With a soft sigh, Ruby climbed up onto the left guard turret, taking Rattrap's place for the night watch. She realized that she'd better get use to it, because this was as much of the outside world she was going to be seeing for a while.

Rattrap frowned a bit before he went inside; yet another reminder on how that silly Predacon turncoat kept throwing wrenches into everything. Just the idea alone made him miss his friend. The answer to a question he had just barely begun to ask himself came before he realized it. He'd take the kid under his wing, if to just teach it the truth about its father.

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading and the reviews!  
**

I don't know why, but I find this confusion sub-arc is more humorous than I should. Too much?


	3. Ch 03: Changing of the Guard

Now she was just feeling caged. It wasn't only just Optimus and Rhinox that had limited what she was allotted to do in and around the base, but now Rattrap was 'mother-hen'ing her about everything, even going as far as taking over every single one of her outside guard duty assignments. They had gotten the auto-guns to work properly, but it was still one last little bit of her freedom taken from her all because they had found out that she was carrying Dinobot's spark around in her chassis.

She walked through what they had set up of their new base looking for something to keep her occupied, or at least a different wall to bounce off of, when she passed by the one of the storage areas. It was the one that they had set up a small section of for Black Arachnia to tinker in, letting the Predacon continue in what best kept her occupied and calm. It reminded her that she wasn't the only one trapped at the base, her aunt's outside freedom dependent of Silverbolt's supervision at the moment.

Ruby heard her aunt mumbling thoughtfully amidst the sound of the tools she was using and decided to spend some quality time with her. Aunti Arachnia was the only one aside from her Grandsparker that she found always tinkering with some new device each time she visited them. Stopping beside a stack of boxes the Transmetal gently rapped on one with her knuckles a couple of times, in hopes of not startling the black and gold femme. Black Arachnia looked over her shoulder, her non-too-happy glare softening a bit when she saw who it was.

"Oh, it's you. The guys forbid you from working near the entrance now?" she asked, her attempt at a sharp, rude tone more forced than she wanted it to be. Black Arachnia wasn't sure if she liked the Maximal femme or not. Sure, Silverbolt had assured her that Ruby approved of their relationship, the flying squirrel openly showing it to the others with her kindness towards her, but the skeptical Predacon side of her made it difficult to trust. In her short life she learned the hard way that everyone had their own agenda for why they do what they do, and until she proved otherwise she would assume Ruby was the same.

"You know them. Always needing to prove themselves macho to us femmes, until we have to save their skid plates," Ruby replied as she walked closer, taking in the large, half-spherical device that Black Arachnia was currently attaching the propeller to the back of. "I came to see if you were willing to let me help."

"Sure. It's rather dull with Silverbolt out looking for Fish Face," the Predacon replied.

Ruby followed Black Arachnia's directions, like she use to in her past, not questioning any of the reasons why she was putting it together like she as choosing to do so. The Maximal's newest ally truly appreciated the complete trust this little Maximal femme was giving her as they worked, even though most femmes were extremely protective of the new sparklings they carried. Dinobot's spark was the only one having issues as to how much Ruby was opening herself up to the dangerous spider, but realized that he couldn't do much about it in his current state. He had to remind himself that Ruby knew what she was doing and probably knew Black Arachnia better than she knew herself at this point in time.

"So, what's it like?" the Predacon asked after they had secured the framed plexiglass half orb to the front of the submersible.

Ruby leaned around the front of the device, blinking her optics in confusion. "What's what like?"

Black Arachnia chuckled at the bewildered look on her face. It was pretty convincing look of innocence, but she knew better. "Carrying around a sparkling."

Ruby's jaw dropped. _They don't think I'm carrying around Dinobot's spark, they think it's his sparkling,_ she thought to herself, realizing exactly what the core of the confusion was. No wonder they were being so over protective of her, it also explained the disappointment Rhinox had expressed, but as excuses go it was pretty handy. She just didn't want to focus on it too much.

"This looks like it'd be so much fun," she decided to reply, looking at the submersible again. "I'd love to take it for a spin."

"Good luck with that," Black Arachnia replied coyly. She'd avoid such embarrassing questions about that aspect of her relationship, too, so she wouldn't give the other femme grief about it, unless she needed the distraction later on.

Speaking of distractions, the large sound of approaching footsteps almost drown out Rattrap's constant complaining questions as he, Optimus, Rhinox, and Cheetor stepped into the storage area. The smallest of the group marched up to the submersible that rested between the two femmes, knelling down to stare hard into the device. Ruby sheepishly wiped off the soot that covered the top of Rhinox's head, which at least got her a grateful smile.

Rattrap didn't know what to think of it, so he gave a bit of a nervous laugh at the idea of anything Black Arachnia built being safe to use. "What de heck is it, b'sides _ugly_?"

Naturally he had turned the jab to the Predacon standing beside him, but she just dished it right back, making Ruby smirk at how sibling like they seemed. "It's a sub-aquatic stealth vessel, garbage breath," she sharply retorted before she began to show it off. With a press of a switch on the side the front part opened up to show off the inside while she gave the rotor blade in the back a spin. "It's powered completely by hand." Turning back to the group she pressed the same switch to close the front, "No noise, no energy signature."

Rhinox was smiling, nodding his approval over the design, "Clever." It seemed that Black Arachnia was useful to have around, aside from giving them access to the Ark.

"It should do the job," Optimus agreed.

"Naturally," the tech-head femme replied, privately pleased that at least someone, aside from Silverbolt, appreciated her natural talents. "So when do I leave?"

"You don't," the Maximal leader informed her a bit firmly, more as a reminder that she wasn't suppose to leave the base by herself. Then he turned his look to Rattrap, who suddenly felt cornered.

"Oooooh no!" he instantly protested, "If you dink dat I'm gettin' inside dat Predacon beach ball you've got yer wires crossed, Fearless Leader."

"Black Arachnia wouldn't know what to look for," Primal reminded his subordinate, "and _you're_ the only one small enough to fit in it."

Rattrap cringed at the very claustrophobic feeling that suddenly closed in around him. "No way! I ain't no water-rat!"

"I'll do it!" Ruby chirped excitedly, hopping a bit as she raised her hand into the air to volunteer. Not only would it be a chance to get out of the base, but she knew what to watch out for after she got the programming containment box.

Sadly, all her hopes crashed when Optimus, Rhinox, and Rattrap promptly told in unison, "No."

The look of disappointment on Ruby's face made him feel bad, but Optimus pressed on his point with Rattrap. "Without a shield program to guard the base we're trapped in a defensive position. This war could go on forever. We'll never get back to Cybertron."

The last, solemn spoken point was the final nail in his possible waterlogged coffin, "Ya just _had_ ta say de 'C' word, didn'tcha?" but Rattrap conceded with a slump of his head and shoulders, "Okay, okay …" Looking up, he actually had to do a double take as he caught Cheetor smirking at him. "What are you grinnin' 'bout, Litter Butt?" the Transmetal rodent snapped.

"I was just thinking, with you inside, that'd make a swell cat toy," the scout happily obliged, laughing at the end.

Rhinox chuckled as well, making Ruby look up at him, but the image of a giant cat batting around the submersible popped into her own mind before she could stop it, nor could she stop the snicker that escaped her. Naturally this made Rattrap's already huffy mood even more dismal.

Silverbolt soon arrived back at the base, where the Maximals had moved the submersible to just inside the doorway, and Optimus began to issue out his orders. Despite being told 'no' repeatedly, Ruby still insisted that she go with them. Black Arachnia, who had been watching the smaller femme keenly the whole time, stepped up beside her as they watched Silverbolt and Rattrap depart, the rodent loudly complaining about his mission since before the sub closed around him.

"They'll be fine," the Predacon tried to assure her quietly, not really wanting to show off her softer side around the others.

"My intuition says otherwise," Ruby replied just as quietly.

* * *

To protect their hidden base located in Wheeljack's ancient workshop Rhinox and Waspinator made the long journey to a secondary base of operations, one that could easily become disposable if necessary filled with a few provisions that they could do without. Since the disappearance of one of his main enforcers, Megatron had increased the amount of patrols and drones in an attempt to capture the wayward Predacon and the Maximal that freed him. This was both a blessing and a curse to the pair. It gave them plenty of targets for when they were ready, but it also made the discovery not an 'if' situation but a 'when'.

Rhinox looked up at the entrance when he heard footsteps, Waspinator quietly entering the chamber they were utilizing with drone slung over his shoulders. With a sigh the Predacon gently slipped it off of his frame and onto a table with the aid of his Maximal friend.

"Minimum damage sustained," the engineer mumbled thoughtfully, "Good job."

Waspinator couldn't help but smile, his metallic wings giving a happy shake in the process. If Megatron had treated any of his troops with a quarter of respect as Optimus Primal had show to his troops, and in turn Rhinox to him, then the Predacons would have easily won the Beast Wars. Then he remembered what he had just left outside and realized that it was for the better that the Maximals had won. They just needed to restore that as quickly as possible.

"Rhino-bot having luck with programming?" he asked his friend as Rhinox slowly returned to his small computer, the tiny screen currently scrolling massive amounts of text.

"None as of yet," the Maximal sighed, pressing a few more buttons on the screen. "Their programming is pretty specific. Megatron made sure that his drones stayed as loyal as possible, almost like a hive mind."

"Ant-bot in charge?" Waspinator asked worriedly.

"Are you recalling any others that were working for Megatron right now?" the green and silver bot asked, half turning from his work.

"Waspinator not recall, but Waspinator know Ant-bot most loyal to Megatron."

Frowning thoughtfully, Rhinox looked back at the coding on his screen. "It is possible that he based that part of their programming on Inferno, or at least was inspired by it."

Waspinator began to plug the drone he had captured into the network system to allow Rhinox to access its systems. This was not the first drone they had worked with and chances were it wasn't going to be the last one he had to capture. The drones whose operating program ended up too scrambled to function were quietly hidden away on the surface far from any entrance they utilized, allowing them access to the parts if needed, but if the chassis were discovered the two lone bots were relatively safe. It just left the Predacon feeling a bit sad over the fact that it was one less drone that they could save. Even if they figured out how to change the programming, they would have to take the time to reprogram each drone one at a time.

"Waspinator did not think about time. New program take forever ."

"We don't have much of a choice," the Maximal replied distractedly, typing away at his little computer. "We have to do one at a time to keep from getting caught."

"Waspinator wish Rhino-bot and Waspinator use mass signal to shut off drones."

"It might come down to that, my friend, but for now we have to figure out how to reprogram at least one of them without it shutting down, then we will focus on how best to turn more."

Rhinox suddenly stopped his typing, quickly turning around to face his companion as he finished connecting the drone. "This mass signal, is it continual for every drone?"

"Waspinator think so. Waspinator always had signal updating processor while Waspinator searched for Rhino-bot."

Ideas began to click into place for the Maximal as he slowly turned back to his computer. Mass implementation of the reprogramming might not be as difficult as he believed if he utilized a human based idea called a 'worm' program to do it. First he had to make sure that the program he was trying to change worked.

* * *

Ruby sighed softy at their return, knowing the outcome already before Rattrap and Depth Charge made their way to the command center. Since he had the most damage Silverbolt was the first in the CR Chamber for repairs. The Transmetal flying squirrel had been helping Rhinox work on an alternate defense program, insisting that they have a back-up plan in case they weren't able to find Sentinel. She knew better, but they wouldn't believe her if she had told them the truth.

Rhinox stood up from his station as Rattrap stepped off of the lift and stormed over towards them all. Depth Charge had leapt onto a mid-ranged platform where the other lift use to reside, and calmly waited as the Transmetal rodent began reporting to his commander about what had happened. Ruby had made herself comfortable on the command table as they listened, her legs crossed to the left as she leaned on her right arm. Rattrap finally got to the end of his report he let his frustrations out on the person there he blamed the most.

"Man!" he said as he turned to face Optimus as he motioned towards Depth Charge, "if it wasn't for dis fish faced crab cook, we'd 'ave Sentinel right now!"

"It was an accident," Depth Charge reminded the rodent, having told Primal that he had heard the commotion and had gone to help, but as he rounded the mountain top he didn't see Silverbolt and Rattrap heading his way since they too were rounding the peek.

"Oh yeah?" Rattrap challenged, "When 'Bolt asked for yer help, you turned 'im down! Was dat an 'accident', too?"

"Is that true?" Primal asked the newest to their ranks.

Depth Charge faced Optimus as he quietly answered, "I was kinda busy with Rampage."

Though the answer didn't surprise him, it still angered the commander at how ordinary the manta ray had made his answer seem. "If you weren't damaged I'd scramble your circuits."

"Don't let that stop you, Primal," Depth Charge retorted.

"It wouldn't stop me," Ruby replied from the table, which made both Optimus and Depth Charge spare her a glance.

"You think you can take me, little girl?"

"I ain't scared of you," she replied.

Rattrap on the other hand wasn't going to let that go unchallenged as he put up his dukes and prepared to give the troublesome Maximal a one-two punch. "Heeey, let me take 'em, Optimus!"

Any possible fight was put to a halt as Rhinox grabbed his friend from behind and picked him up, but it didn't keep Rattrap from kicking, trying to take a swing at his target. Depth Charge; however, was not done.

"I knew saving your hide was a mistake," he growled at the struggling bot.

"Rattrap?" Primal asked, realizing that in his rush to blame Depth Charge for the failure of the mission that his second in command had left something out.

"Oh … well," Rattrap started weakly as enough of his fight was taken away with the question that Rhinox felt comfortable enough to set him back on his feet, "yeeeah, technically he _did_ kinda do dat." Turning towards the bot he was about to punch the lights out of not two nano-clicks before he took the high ground. "Um, danks."

"Looks like you did give us some help after all," Primal stated, drawing Depth Charge's attention away from bowing up to Rattrap, since he was still looking for a fight.

"Don't go getting all gushy on me," he retorted.

"I'm not," Optimus clarified. "You also cost us a major strategic advantage. That's why you can't continue to act as an independent. We need you, Maximal."

Depth Charge watched as Optimus extended his huge hand towards him as an offer for a truce to their past differences. "I'll think about it," he informed the Maximal commander before he turned to the other three in the command center, "this crew sure needs _something_."

"Why you…" Rattrap muttered, knowing the jab was directed at him.

Turning back to Primal, Depth Charge accepted the offer to join the group. With that small fiasco settled behind them now, Ruby slipped off of the table and made her way back over to the station she had been working at.

"Now that that's all out of the way, I need to get back to work," she muttered, taking seat at the communications station.

"Are you sure you don't want to give me a tour of the base?" the newest of their crew asked, enjoying watching Rattrap seethe at the attention he was showering the femme with.

"You've given me enough work to do without demanding more," Ruby replied calmly as she focused on her screen, decidingly ignoring everything else. She only glanced away from her work as the others walked off, Primal giving Depth Charge the official tour. She knew that her bluff was discovered today and her only fear now was what the enemy was going to do with that information.

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.**

Since I've been posting without my usual proofer reading over my chapters, if y'all see something that's a possible issue feel free to let me know. Thanks!


	4. Ch 04: Cutting Edge

"Jack! Una! Wait up!"

Ruby paused in the hallway and watched as the two children ran past her, Cheetor's laughing voice echoing down the hallway as his footsteps clanked along the metallic flooring. Soon the Transmetal cheetah had passed her and she was able to continue her journey to the command center. There was a pleased feeling in her torso about the children running around. Dinobot had not fully realized exactly what he had given his life for in that valley until now.

It had already been three lunar cycles since the failed retrieval of Sentinel. In that time they had slowly planned and pieced together a rather impressive defense system with what they had left over from their ship. In that time her personal foe had been oddly silent, at least to her knowledge. She had not been allowed to leave the base, though they had allowed her outside access in the area surrounding the base as long as one of them was with her. Most of the Maximals stayed close to the base while the defenses were so sparse, but after the huge push today for the final bits they could leave her and Rhinox to defend the Ark.

She came into the command center as Rhinox and Optimus were finishing up their discussion, the holographic image of the walking cyber-raptor spinning around above the table. Utilizing the lift system, Ruby set the box of components she carried in a nearby seat before she walked up to the table.

"That's what you ran into?" she asked Optimus as she stepped up beside the younger version of her Grand-sparker. Ruby rubbed her chin as she focused on the image, much like Rhinox would when he would be deep in thought.

"Yes," the Maximal commander answered, noting how slowly she had seemed to be moving lately. It was apparent that the drain caused by housing a second spark was starting to show, though they could all tell she did her best to ignore it. "What are your thoughts on the matter, Ruby?"

She smirked before she could hide it. If he only really knew what she did … "Even though velociraptors were thought to be the best hunters and trackers by the human archeologists that discovered and studied their remains, I think Megatron has an unnatural obsession with Dinobot and his beast mode base. That now set off to the side; however," she continued, "Megatron seems to be utilizing the image of the bot that had saved the humans, perhaps trying to tarnish their hero."

"That is a possibility," Primal quietly agreed. Before he could continue the three looked over in the direction the sound of a sudden crash, followed by the loud laughter of children. "Rhinox, call everyone in. We need to get the children back home before they hurt themselves."

* * *

Rhinox and Waspinator stood back from the drone, it facing the opening of the warehouse they had moved it to before they turned it back on. This was the fourth one that they had issued the worm to, but they wouldn't know if it functioned properly until they powered the unit back on. The first one had activated before they could finish installing its parasitic programming, making a huge mess of their temporary surroundings in the process and prompting them to take the rest of the project up to the surface. The second failed to power on at all after the worm dug into its systems. The third had exploded after a few cycles, after it had began to attack them.

"Waspinator hope this works," the Predacon stated nervously as they hid behind a stack of crates.

"You and me both," Rhinox replied as he peeked out before he pressed a button on the remote.

The drone shook as it reactivated, making the two hide a bit more behind their crate. Eventually it settled down, stood still for a moment, and then promptly transformed and drove out of the open doorway to rejoin the patrol that was rolling by.

"So far so good," Rhinox stated quietly as they relaxed a bit.

"Waspinator agree, but Waspinator want to go. Surface scares Waspinator."

"I don't care for it either," the Maximal agreed. "It's also a good idea to vacate the area, just in case they somehow figure out that was one of their missing drones. We might have taken precautions, but I'd rather put our discovery as far down the road as possible."

"Waspinator agree," the Predacon quietly whispered as they headed into the tunnels below the surface. "Megatron punish Waspinator and Rhino-bot severely if captured."

"I'm sure his cruelty's grown over the stellar-cycles," Rhinox replied as he sealed the entrance shut.

* * *

The most trusted of the tyrant that ruled Cybertron marched into the throne chamber, swiftly making his way past the macabre trophies his commander had won. Though it still kept with his original shape, his body was redesigned over the stellar-cycles to fit the shaper, harsher atmosphere of the planet.

"Royalty," Inferno addressed the tyrant, bowing deeply.

Megatron turned around in his floating chair, away from the many screens that kept him occupied. The ant had been a recent addition since the disappearance of Waspinator's new form, but it was a welcomed change. Although new, Inferno did not report any memory changes like Megatron was constantly plagued with, so the tyrant took it as an omen that the Maximal's pathetic little attempt was not a true threat.

"What is your report, Commander?"

It was only after Megatron had addressed him did Inferno upright himself. "Ground drone number 63752 has rejoined its usual patrol roughly ten cycles after we lost communication with it."

"Has it now?" Megatron asked, his interest slightly peaked as he turned his chair enough to look at a data-orb that came up beside him, "It appears that our little pest problem refuses to go away."

With a swift twist of his chair, Megatron turned his attention back to the bot before him. "As soon as that drone has returned make sure that it has a complete diagnostic scan before you report to me again. I want to know what he's done to the one that got away."

"Yes, my Queen!" Inferno promptly saluted before he turned on his heels and marched out of the room.

Megatron sighed, resting the upper part of his face in his hand as he willed away the ache in his processor. After all this time he apparently still had not figure out how to get rid of _that_. With a soft grunt he turned his hovering chair back around to focus on one particular orb.

"You're going to slip up soon, Rhinox, very soon," he monologue as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "This drone might seem to be a trivial matter to me, but I know you better than that. You're planning something, yeess, I know you are. Something that you hope will save you, but it will not. You have always made things more difficult than they should ever have been for me. Capturing you isn't going to be enough, noo."

Megatron brought up the database he had made so long ago about a particular little enigma that had show up suddenly in a strange Predacon ship, her robotic image slowly spinning around in the center of the orb. "I will derive satisfaction from you for this annoyance you've put me through, yeess, and I will enjoy breaking that strong, stubborn spirit of yours."

* * *

Ruby sighed softly as she continued to work inside the scanning station's lower hardware, installing the new sensor components she had been working on. Rattrap had been complaining almost non-stop since this morning and it had gotten worse right as Optimus and Silverbolt left the base.

"I don't see the problem with making sure that things are done properly, Rattrap," Rhinox had finally stated, managing to keep his voice calm despite the frustration the bot was causing.

"Optimus should've 'ad me go with 'em. De defenses are workin' just fine," Rattrap snapped. "'nd uh, no offense, but de last time ya made a new security system it tried ta kill me."

"That's because you and Dinobot had to go picking fights," Ruby said, on her back and half into the lower section, focused on the circuit board she was using the syncro-laser on. "You were the one that decided to test it out on Dinobot, so you brought that down on yourself."

"She's right, you know," Rhinox chuckled a bit, watching his friend deflate from his bowed up, aggravated stance.

"Yeah … well … dat's not de point," Rattrap whined a bit.

"You just want out of the base," the femme countered with a grunt as she pulled herself up off the floor. "That you're feeling trapped and unable to leave due to the discretion of others. Especially when you _feel_ that you have something very important to do." When Rhinox and Rattrap both looked at her slack jawed, both realizing that she used Rattrap's own misery to get her own situation across, she just smiled. "Yeah, it stinks."

"Touché," her fellow rodent mumbled as he crossed his arms over his torso.

Rhinox was chuckling a bit as he got up, using the lift to head down to the lower level as Rattrap moved over to the holo-table to continue his work there. Ruby simply began packing up her box after she replaced the panel for the area she had been working on. The chip she installed would aid the system in detecting any nearby Cybertronian energy signature and log exactly which unit was where. She needed to know if and when Megatron showed up and if he was alone or not.

Rhinox was making sure that her upgrade to the system wouldn't strain the power grid. He had utilized the geothermal power that surrounded them to power their systems, which freed up quite a bit of their energon reserves, but there was always the risk of damaging their already beaten up systems with an overload.

The defense alarms began to blare as the systems detected the incoming Predacon attack. First the outside camera was blasted offline, followed shortly by both outside auto guns. Ruby and Rattrap focused on the holo-table as the sensors activated, her new addition giving them an instant read out on their attackers.

"Not the test I was hoping to run this soon," she mumbled.

The two smaller bots were thrown to the ground at the sudden impact that had hit the base, Rhinox managing to keep his footing as he looked over at Rattrap, who had fallen off of the upper flooring.

"Looks like we got company," the infiltrator stated before he scrambled back up to his feet.

Rhinox looked up at Ruby as she looked down at the pair. "The computer says its Megs, Inferno, Quickstrike, and Rampage doing the knocking."

"Get to cover and stay down Ruby," the large Maximal ordered as he rushed to the main panel for the defense grid. "Auto guns online." Pulling out his chain guns free, Rhinox ran to join Rattrap behind some of the boulders at the front of the area as the internal auto guns came online.

Ruby slowly moved backwards, crouching down behind the holo-table as she pulled out her gatling gun. Her weapon rattled a bit as she chambered it and waited. It was so very nice of her enemy to come to her.

The fighting was fierce, both sides hiding behind cover as they traded shots, but it seemed that the Predacons had the upper hand. Ruby wasn't able to aid her family due to their positioning in front of her. "All my training and I couldn't get a sniper rifle, no," she mumbled, hiding behind the table again as a stray shot struck the command center, "Why would the head of the guard for the human diplomat ever need to utilize a sniper rifle?"

Peeking out again Ruby watched as the attacking forces advanced, forcing Rhinox and Rattrap to run her way to seek cover nearby. The way Rattrap had his hand up she could tell that he was trying to call for help. Jumping up from behind the table, Ruby launched one of her grenades into the center of the attacking group, the device belching smoke violently and sending the Predacons scurrying for cover long enough for her boys to dive behind some boxes.

The smoke cleared away quickly; soon giving the Predacons a clear shot to take out the auto guns that were located almost on top of where Rhinox and Rattrap took cover. Knowing that they had to make a more offensive stance, the engineer stood up and began to give every bullet he had in his weaponry only to take a blow from Megatron straight to the torso. The blast sent him flying backwards, crashing into the central support post for the command center.

Ruby saw it in slow, horrifying detail, but it still sent a powerful shock through her systems. Leaping up onto the table itself she screamed out, "Frag you Megatron!" before she sent a violent volley of bullets their way, the roar of her weaponry overpowering her angry yell.

Rampage smiled from behind the box he had taken refuge behind as his shoulder wounds from her weaponry sealed up, savoring the delightful rush at the pain he was feeling from her spark, the anger tasted so sweet. It was almost overwhelmingly intoxicating. He had to have more!

Rattrap utilized Ruby's cover fire to rush to Rhinox's side to check on his friend. He was functional, much to the infiltrator's relief. Unfortunately for him the Predacons had focused their fire above them, the cover fire suddenly ending with a pained shout and a loud crash ending the rain of bullets. It was up to him now. Using the box that was there Rattrap began to fire on the intruders, becoming the last line of defense.

In the momentary pause as Megatron apparently was giving orders, the Maximals saw a secondary attack coming from behind the Predacons. Depth Charge flew in, firing direct shots at Megatron as he passed, before he transformed and slammed himself down between the Maximal's command center and the attacking Predacon forces. He had both the firepower and the built in shielding from his original station on Omnicron to take the brunt of the attacks and dish it right back in the Predacon's faces. With the other Maximals joining in Megatron had no choice but to retreat.

Turning to face the two bots on the lower level with him, Depth Charge pointed his weapons up into the air. "Big Preds are my specialty."

Rhinox had to smile, grateful for the hard headed Maximal's dedication of tracking Rampage's spark. "Not too shabby," he complemented.

"Eh, still smells like fish," Rattrap mumbled, waving his hand in front of his face as if the smell offended him and gained the ever wanted anger from his target. Their fight was abruptly cut short with the loud crash from above them.

"Ruby!" Rhinox called as he and Rattrap ran to the lift.

Depth Charge utilized the side platform to watch as the pair rushed over to the tiny femme, her weapon lying on the ground where she rested on her hands and knees, one hand holding the red orb on her torso. He raised an optic ridge at the very sight; the gatling gun was almost bigger than she was. If she was comfortable utilizing such a massive weapon then no wonder she thought she was capable of handling Rampage.

Ruby groaned as Rhinox gently pushed her back to sit on the flooring so he could get a better look at her. Her torso was one giant scorch mark, the orb on her torso cracked. Looking up at both the worried looking bots before her, the tiny femme cracked a smile. "I'll admit, that was stupid."

"Come on," Rhinox said, scooping her up, "Let's get you checked out and repaired."

As they focused on the things related to the base, Depth Charge turned to head out of the front to guard the open entry way until the others returned. It looked like the Maximals had quite a bit left to do before their defense systems were going to be ready.

* * *

They didn't have to start back at square one for their base defenses, but it was still quite a bit of work to get all the repairs done. Rhinox sighed as he sat down in his seat, taking over the night monitor duty while the others rested. With so much on his mind he wasn't able to power down to rest so he sent Rattrap off.

Ruby was resting in circular scanning and repair table his had built in his new work area, the scanners keeping him constantly updated on her condition. The device that kept her slightly out of phase with their own time line had been damaged, but it held long enough for him to repair it. However, the damage done to both her frame and the sparks she carried wasn't as easily fixed.

Primal stepped up to his customized work station, reading over the data points from the latest scans. It appeared that they had done enough damage to keep Megatron quiet for at least a little while. As he looked up at the command center, he noticed Rhinox's distracted manner. "What is it?"

Turning to face his commander, the engineer sighed softly. "We have to find a blank soon or we'll lose both of them."

"Maybe put it in a stasis field or container until we can find one?"

"That would be tricky, but possibly doable," Rhinox replied as he turned back to his station, "I had been contemplating the idea since the incident with Optimus Prime and yourself, but never in my wildest of ideas thought that we'd ever need to actually build it."

"Like your temporal device?" Optimus smirked a bit as his friend paused and turned in his seat enough to look at him, the engineer's optics a bit wide.

Rhinox sat silently as the ideas clicked together in his head. Nodding, he turned back towards his station, "I'll start working on it now, but I don't know when it will be done. Finding a blank would still be the best option we have."

"Then the rest of us will focus what we can on that."

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.**

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Feel free to let me know.


	5. Ch 05: Feral Scream - 1

The office was dark the only illumination being given by a single desk lamp that was focused down on the computer the occupant worked on. This side of the planet currently turned away from the sun near the middle of its night cycle, most of the region's beings recharging for the next day. Not him, not tonight.

The Transmetal 2 Cheetah based fighter sighed as he took a break from his work. He had taken a job with helping the new recruits of warriors and explorers with the benefits and risks with adapting to their alternate modes, particularly the ones that had to choose an organic form. He had taken the lessons that he had learned himself as well as the ones that he learned from Tigatron and Rhinox during their time in the Beast Wars. Now he passed that knowledge onto the next generation.

The silence of his office was suddenly split by his communicator activating. "Cheetor here," he replied, sitting back in his chair.

"Sir," one of the night time security bots from the training grounds began speaking, "You had requested to be notified of use of the training facilities after normal hours. She just signed in."

Cheetor frowned a bit as he looked at his desk. The training grounds were open at all hours, the students allowed to utilize the facility when classes weren't in session, though it was a rare case indeed. No, the reason for his frown was more concern than being unhappy to have been bothered.

"I understand, thank you," he replied before he shut off his communicator. He had gotten to his feet and slowly made his way to the training area.

Cheetor nodded to the security bot that stood guard at the front of the building as he walked in. The building was usually quiet during these dark megacycles, and overall it still was, but the guards became more active with even just the one student that had been visiting almost every nice since she joined.

There were several holographic scenarios that had been set up so that they would be able to train the recruits in any possible field they would encounter, especially for the more non-standard worlds. Stopping outside a particular doorway, he knew she was going to be inside like every night before. Imputing his override code, it allowed him to enter the already running program without it powering down. He transformed into his beast mode and leapt through the door before it closed.

The large cheetah, with patches of missing hide that exposed the cybernetics underneath, prowled through the thick jungle area, savoring the sounds of the dark night that surrounded him, sounds that he had grown to love and missed dearly since their return. Even after their return he had a chance to visit Earth, but it just wasn't the same. The humans had truly grown and taken over the world, but it left very little of it as feral and free as it was when they were marooned there.

The environment shimmered around him, becoming the harsh sharp metallic shapes of Cybertronian buildings in ruin, random piles of debris appearing around him. He recognized the simulation. It was one of the higher level urban scenarios that were utilized by the bots that were trying out for the Elite Guard or the Wreckers. With a soft growl the huge, metallic cheetah leapt to the top of one of the buildings to get a prime view as the battle started.

He watched as the little gold and green femme engaged the holographic group, utilizing the terrain for her protection and to confuse her enemy as she slowly took each unit out. Knowing that it would possibly be a long battle, Cheetor got comfortable as he lazily lay on his side on the roof, his front paws crossed and dangling off the edge, while his tail randomly flopped around beside him as he watched with a gentle purr. He could see each aspect she had gained over the stellar-cycles from each one of their little group, but she merged it into her own style. She might have been in the newest class, but she was quickly rising to the top.

After a while he noticed Ruby had caught sight of him, which seemed to bring about a change in her actions; a change that made him groan a bit as his head dropped. She started to do trickier, unnecessary moves which put her in danger of being hit as she jumped and ran around her targets. It reminded him of himself when he was much younger, trying to go over the top to impress with needless and potentially harmful maneuvers, or just outright stupid choices and disobeying orders. This time it worked out in her favor as each target quickly vanished after she blasted it, but, as he painfully recalled, one could only be so lucky for so long. It was as she was playfully hunting down her target, the last holographic bot fleeing to avoid going back to digital oblivion, that her instructor had gotten the perfect idea for his lesson.

"Computer," he said with a bit stronger purr, after she had been gone from view for a few clicks, "activate 'Tag'."

"Activating," replied the monotone male voice.

The little femme stumbled to an awkward halt as her target slowly vanished before her optics, leaving her in an eerie silence. Slowly she turned around, her blaster pointing up into the air as she waited. The silence was slowly broken by a slow, rhythmic pulse of metal hitting metal, growing louder as it shook the ground. The large, boxy, metallic dinosaur shaped head peeked out from around a building further down the road, its mouth easily big enough to close around her with not even a squeak of protest in its powerful jaw. It took every ounce of power she had to her tiny frame to not move, fearful that it would draw unwanted attention to herself.

Just a split nano-click after it appeared its glowing blue optics focused down on her, making her fuel pump seize in her torso, suddenly feeling like prey.

"Me Grimlock want to play tag!" the towering Dinobot stated before it quickly turned down the roadway his new green and gold playmate was on. Ruby quickly turned around and ran in the direction she had just come from, hearing the heavy stomps of her foe right behind her.

Cheetor heard the heavy footfalls of the fabled Dinobot commander before he saw Ruby run back into view, sliding sideways on her hands and feet as she rounded the corner, scrambling back to her feet before she started running at her top speed, losing her weapon in the process. Looking casually down as she passed the building he rested on, he had to chuckle a bit as he heard her repeatedly state each word over and over with every step, "Oh, slag! Oh, slag!"

"Really? That's all you got from Rattrap?" he asked rhetorically, shaking his bestial head. "Rhinox is not going to be happy about that." When he had thought she had enough of the chase after about ten cycles, Cheetor stood up on all fours, gave a lazy cat-like stretch, and leapt down into the roadway.

Ruby was looking behind her for a moment, but was startled when she looked forward again to find her Uncle Cheetor just sitting in the middle of an intersection. Her attempt to stop was rather comical as she ended up sliding then rolling to a halt before him, the stomping of the predator growing louder. She had just managed to gain her feet when the stomping stopped and she felt something pressing down on her head rather heavily. Grimlock had made the tag.

"Me Grimlock am winner!"

As the gigantic Dinobot did his victory dance he slowly faded from view, followed shortly by the cityscape, leaving the pair in the center of a black box. Ruby was frowning as she put her hands on her hips.

"That wasn't fair, Uncle Cheetor," she admonished.

"Sorry, kid, but war isn't fair," he replied with a smirk. "I was told you were here again."

"Just trying to get as much practice in," she replied as he relaxed, "I've got some pretty big shoes to fill."

"You were doing fine until you noticed you were being watched." When she sheepishly looked away because of the tone of voice he had used, the Transmetal 2 sighed. "You've heard this lecture before, not only in my class but from what we've told you growing up."

"Yes, sir," she said quietly.

"Oh, now we can't have you all down and frowny. Tell you what, how about I share a little story with you as I walk you back to your quarters?"

That got the smile he was looking for. As he began escort her back, he shared that eventful night back on prehistoric earth, the one where he finally learned his lesson the hard way.

* * *

Ruby sat beside his recharge berth, waiting in the quiet of the night. He had finally fallen asleep, having apologized over and over again to her about losing the blank stasis pod that she was needing and for the fact that Megatron somehow used it to clone a new Dinobot for himself. Despite his pain, Cheetor felt like he had failed her terribly with the double blow.

It was a rather new experience to be the story teller to her family, but sharing with him her job before she joined them, and a few humorous ones from her time in training, helped Cheetor finally relax enough to rest. With her badly damaged friend in recharge, purring instead of snoring, Ruby waited nearby, reading the data pad she had found in Dinobot's belongings. When Optimus checked on them before he headed off for his own recharge, the femme simply nodded to his silent question, not wanting to risk waking the scout just yet.

Satisfied, Primal returned the solemn nod before he slid the door shut. He was doing his best not to let his worry override his logic circuits, but Cheetor as almost like a son to him at this point in their lives. He had taken the young scout under his wing from right before the Axalon had taken off from the space port and had watched him grow. There was also the bit of guilt that was gnawing at him over the chiding he had given Cheetor that had sent the flying cat off to face Megatron alone, which ended with his scout almost the next casualty to this brutal war.

_That still might the outcome_, Primal thought with a frown, recalling what Rhinox had told him when he and Ruby had a heart to heart before they had lost Dinobot. Her comment about cherishing a friendship more when you knew that you were going to lose someone echoed something through him with a powerful force that he couldn't deny. The only one that Primal knew for sure would survive the war was Rhinox himself, because of the very existence of Ruby.

As he stepped into the command area, Optimal Optimus' mind was grinding over the thought of her current actions. Was she staying with Cheetor right now out of concern? Or perhaps he was to join the All Spark tonight and she didn't want him to pass on alone? Or was she going to try to prevent his joining? Optimus' frown grew deeper as he realized that only she knew, and until the morning, or something happened in the night, it would stay that way.

"Hey Optimus," Rattrap greeting drew Primal out of his dour thoughts. "'ey, how's our boy?"

"Finally asleep, despite the damage," Primal reported. "I don't understand why he won't use the CR chamber."

"Well, uh, maybe he's tryin' ta prove somethin'?" the Transmetal rodent offered.

"Prove? No, I think it goes deeper than that." That didn't settle well with Primal's previous thoughts, but he shook it off. "Scan report?" he asked, trying to sound hopeful.

Rattrap glanced back, waving his hand to help offer a view of the rather boring show. "All grids quiet."

"Well, let's hope it stays that way. See you in the morning." Primal slowly turned and headed to the cavern that had become his quarters.

Turning back to the station he was sitting at, Rattrap propped his feet back up and rested his arms behind his head. "Quiet enough for a little rat nap," he chuckled to himself before yawning, closing his optics for a small rest.

* * *

She had not realized she had fallen asleep until Cheetor's panicked mumbling woke her up. Seeing him struggling in his sleep Ruby rushed to his side, dropping the data pad on the chair she had occupied.

"Cheetor," she called out, gently shaking him, "Cheetor, wake up. Please wake up."

When the scout suddenly snapped upright, gasping for the much needed air for his cooling systems, he knocked Ruby off balance, sending her to the floor with an 'oof'. Cheetor looked around, trying to gain his bearings, and focused on his hands.

"Just a dream," he breathed, "Not real."

Ruby was back up at his side, giving him a gentle pat on his shoulder to let him know he was alright, when they both suddenly focused on his torso. A strange glowing green plasma like tendril snaked its way from the very location his spark resided and suddenly wrapped itself around his severely damaged arm. Several more shot out, wrapping tightly around his torso, before his entire body began to glow the same green, the kid screaming as the pain overwhelmed his processor.

Ruby had to shield her optics from the bright light, backing away from Cheetor as he flailed around. When the light finally faded she put her arms down, only to gasp in surprise as the huge Transmetal 2 form she had grown up with now crouched on the bed before her, with a malicious look to his optics. The creature began to rage, swiping its sharp, massive claws around anything and everything in the room as she scrambled to keep out of his way.

When the creature focused on her again, it gave a feral shout before it leapt at her, slamming her into the wall and pinning her there. Panic naturally filled her, knowing that he was not in complete control and would hurt her. When he had backed away enough, Ruby quickly brought her feet up between them and shoved them as hard as she could into his torso. Not only did he go flying backwards a few yards, but she fell to the floor. Unfortunately it just enraged the creature more and he charged at her again.

A bright blue light suddenly appeared between them, the glowing battle aura she had while fighting Megatron now standing before her, connected to her by a thin energy line. Dinobot's image had grabbed Cheetor's front paws around the wrist joint and was actually holding him at bay, growling as fiercely as the feral creature.

The sound from outside the room drew the feral creature's attention away from her and he began to strike the door, smelling Rattrap on the other side. As the door finally gave way, giving the creature a means of escape, she heard Rattrap loudly exclaim as the beast rushed at him. The light of her protector faded, leaving her alone in the room, but drained of energy now. Slowly she started to crawl towards the doorway, hearing Optimus running towards them, but she just slipped to the ground. Ruby let her head rest on the floor, wishing that her Uncle could have at least recalled more of his night than he had told her about.

* * *

In all of his years teaching, he figured he would have slowly grown accustomed to the antics of the bots that had it set in their processors to outdo everyone else on the field, and thus prove themselves that they were the absolute best choice for anyone to pick for whatever group they were needing a spot filled. As painful as it was to watch it brought back memories of the time where he was once like that and, much like himself, no real amount of lecturing seemed to get the point across. Young bots still were mostly brash, especially if there was a femme or commander watching, and this day was no exception.

Classes moved on, bots came and went as they learned what exactly was expected of them to join the warrior classes, and a few naturally excelled in the art. Those who had pressed on past all of the others solar cycles ago were now running the scenarios that counted as their final that consisted of unending enemies that lasted until the set time ran out or all the bots on the course were taken out of play. Commanders from the units that were interested observed unseen from the building tops as the battle raged below. Some would pass and be given their new assignments, others would be retrained until they passed or moved on.

Cheetor, in his robotic Transmetal 2 mode, stood with a group that had a vested interest with one particular bot that ran the course, data pad in hand that received the input from the other observing commanders spread throughout the course. Optimal Optimus towered over them all, even in his beast mode, watching and evaluating the group. Beside the feline based fighter Rhinox, Silverbolt, and Black Arachnia were focused on the little femme as she slowly made her way through the field, avoiding strikes from both friend and foe. Rattrap had himself close to the ledge, one leg propped up to rest his elbow on as he leaned over to watch, mumbling about how stupid some bots were.

The human with them was considered old by Earth terms, but somehow kept running circles around the younger bots. An Earth war veteran, he was not without his battle damage. It was his experience that had gained Cirus Neols the job of the human Head of Security for the Earth diplomat. The Cybertronian equal to his position had been called away for another mission, which left the human looking for a replacement, but very few of the ones he was currently seeing now looked promising.

"Eh," Rattrap mumbled, "justa lousy bunch ov rusted lug nuts."

"Rattrap," Optimus softly admonished his friend.

"I'm just sayin' dat mosta de kiddos dese days are soft," the rodent whined a bit as he looked up at his former commander, "Nutin' like what we 'ad in our day."

"As much as I hate to admit it, but I think Rattrap's right," Black Arachnia said as she too leaned over just in time to watch one young bot try to impress one of the femmes of the class as he ran out into the fray, doing several complicated leaps before he was shot down, making both the femme on the field and the female Maximal shake their heads slowly at how stupid men acted sometimes.

"I wouldn't count them all out," Cirus replied, his eyes too on the field. "Some of them have a well grounded discipline that would make fine members of the commanding class."

Primal heard the particular tone in the human's voice. "You sound like you've made your choice."

After a few moments the human man nodded; he found a few that had potential. "I have. I just hope I've got enough rank to make it happen."

"We'll see, old friend," Optimus nodded to himself, "we'll see."

Cheetor looked up at Optimus, who nodded once, and turned his attention back to his data pad. The other commanders apparently had seen enough as well and had let him know. There was something that he had to test himself first, something he needed to know for sure before the tests ended today.

"Computer, activate 'Tag'."

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.**

Sorry if it's a bit more flashback than story, but really how much can she do in this? Instead I utilized Cheetor's 'coming of age' story to help show a bit of Ruby's own growth.

These particular chapters/episodes do have a stronger pull on my writing than others, and not because it's Dinobot's Frankenstein inspired return either. The original go around from years back had the OC paired up with Cheetor, which put her in the original run with a deeper investment on how the scout's upgrade went. It was also a huge Mary Sue mess … Shame on me, yeess.


	6. Ch 06: Feral Scream - 2

Quick Note: I posted chapters 5 and 6 together. If you just skipped to this one then you're missing half of the update, please go back one chapter to make sure I haven't confused you. Thank you.

* * *

After waking up in the CR chamber, again, Ruby slowly made her way to a nearby chair in the command center, listening to Optimus, Rhinox, and Rattrap talking about their uneventful search for their scout. It was not long afterwards that Silverbolt and Black Arachnia had joined them.

"You found nothing?" Rhinox urgently asked, which gained him a slow shake of his head from Silverbolt.

"Oy, I was up close 'n personal with dat freak bot," Rattrap reminded them all, " 'n I am tellin' ya Spots is spare parts."

"Don't give up so easily, Rattrap." Primal was trying to remain hopeful, and this sour bot wasn't helping. "So far we found nothing. What that means is open to interpretation."

"Well, if you've got a theory I'm sure we'd all like to hear it," the Predacon challenged, her personal experience from her last group making her suspicious about anything the 'leader' might have kept from his group.

"No, not till I'm certain," Primal replied, and then began issuing orders. "Now get some rest, all of you. We'll resume the search in two cycles."

Turning back to his station, Optimus began to input the codes he wanted as he ordered the computer to bring up a certain timeline from the night before. When they had dug her out of the mess that had became Cheetor's room Ruby told them that she had fallen asleep during her watch and that the sudden attack had surprised her. Between the bright flash of light and having to defend herself from the thing attacking her she didn't get a chance to see exactly what had happened to Cheetor. To be honest, she was still shaken up about what had happened.

As Optimus was looking at the paused image of the Transmetal 2 bot the sound of Depth Charge's heavy footsteps echoed in the chamber behind him. Ruby calmly leaned to the side to get a glimpse of the huge Maximal, both sharing a glare before the manta ray spoke.

"You wanted to see me?" Depth Charge pretty much growled.

Primal turned around, not really in the mood for any more games. "What happened to Cheetor on that mountain top? And I mean what _really_ happened."

"You hauled me in here to ask _that_?" the difficult Maximal snapped at his 'commander', turning around to walk away, but foolishly looked back to throw another barb. "Ask the cat."

Before he could step away any further Primal quickly grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and got right into his face. "I'm asking you!"

"Then you're wasting your time!" Depth Charge shouted back.

Unsure of exactly what was going on with his scout Primal was in no mood to put up with Depth Charge's blatant disrespect, and with having to deal with Dinobot for so long he knew that he'd have to press his size advantage. With an amazing amount of restraint, Primal still managed to shove Depth Charge pretty hard into the stack of crates behind the smaller bot and got right back into the hard headed Maximal's face.

"You listen, hard head. Cheetor is gone and I think you know something, so you will _talk_ or I will rip out your core processer and extract the information _personally_!"

This was a whole new side of Primal that the former security officer never thought he'd ever get to see, nor did it sound like an idle threat. "Well, since you asked so nicely," he sarcastically replied, but then got serious, "Your little kitty cat ripped some kind of alien gizmo off Megatron's organic transmetal unit."

"Did he succeed?" Optimus asked, urging for more information.

"Yeah," Depth Charged sighed, "but the unit was already activated."

Primal leaned back some, realization sending a sinking feeling to the pit of his energon processor. "He was caught in the overload."

"I've already destroyed the gizmo." Depth Charge finally let his guilt show, "I'm sorry. I didn't know that was what he was going to become."

"You didn't know the outcome," Ruby snapped, standing up and marching over to the edge of the flooring, "but you should have _still_ said something. We could have done something to at least have kept him from running off. We could have been prepared, instead of him almost killing three of us. If it wasn't for-"

Ruby groaned, one hand gripping her torso armor as she used the other to hold herself up with the table. Primal rushed over to her as she fell to her knees as she mumbled soothing words to try to calm the second spark in her torso. He didn't intend it, but Dinobot had hurt her in his attempt to keep her secret safe.

"Calm down," Primal told her gently, holding up one of his massive hands to keep her from falling.

Depth Charge stomped up beside Primal, taking his by now usual perch. "What's her problem?" he muttered.

Optimus looked over at the other bot with a frown, "We really needed that blank stasis pod."

"I did tell you to let me go with you," the tiny femme retorted tightly as she struggled to get up.

The hard headed Maximal's optics went wide as he looked back at the other side of the table as Primal helped Ruby back to her feet. There was only one real reason to need a blank pod.

"Well, well," Depth Charge retorted, "who's the unlucky one to have ever thought it was a good idea to link up with you?"

"Dinobot," Primal said firmly, but there was still a quiet undertone to his voice that reverberated remorse.

That was a second shock that Depth Charge wasn't prepared for. As he looked over at Ruby, now back in a chair, he realized that the news of Megatron's latest clone was a one-two strike against her. "That's some cold slag."

* * *

As their targets began to fade out, the surviving trainees began to gather together, most of them ecstatic over the fact that they had beaten the simulation, sure that they had aced their final if they had gone this long. A small few of the more cautious ones, mostly the femmes of the group, remained silent and waited. It was only a few nano-clicks after they had gathered when the first rumble, though subtle, went through the ground. Most didn't realize it until it started to grow louder, the reverberation through the ground becoming more powerful. One of them recognized it.

"Quiet," she said, raising one of her hands to wave the others to hush. Ruby looked around, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. It was coming from the group's collective left and quickly growing closer. "We need to get to shelter, now. Bada Bang, Bada Boom, scout ahead."

The Bada Twins, one favoring a sapphire and silver coloration while her sister preferred an emerald tone instead of blue, nodded sharply and began to run in the direction that Ruby had pointed to. Ruby quickly began to urge the others into following, but only a few heeded her as they began to move.

"Are you kidding me?" one of the bots asked. "Who made you commander?" He and the group that didn't like the idea of someone taking the lead, aside from one of them, were standing where they had gathered, watching the others run off like chickens. "We need to stay and fight this!"

"Um… Steve," one of his friends tapped the mouthy one on the shoulder plate, making him turn around. As he and the others slowly did, their jaws dropped.

The larger than life Dinobot had spotted them and began the chase. "Me Grimlock want to play tag!"

The remaining bots began to book it as they quickly caught up with, and in some cases passed, the group that heeded the little green and gold femme. The twins had found a building, the green one rushing in while the blue one began to wave the others in quickly. Ruby waited outside with her to make sure that everyone made it inside before she turned to Bang, "I'll draw him away, circle most of the group around the area to take him down. Don't let him tag you."

Bada Bang nodded once before she rushed inside and began to split the group between her and her sister, each sister leading a group on either side of the street. Naturally most of the same group that had waited to run didn't like the idea decided that they were going to handle things on their own, promptly sneaking out of the building.

Ruby managed to run Grimlock around four square blocks, heading back in the direction that the ambush should have been set and waiting, when she found a group of bots running _towards_ her. "What are you doing?" she asked as they approached.

"Not taking orders from you, little girl," Steve retorted sharply, leading his group into a head on attack.

Ruby had glanced back as they ran past her, each one taking up a hiding spot behind a pile of debris, but kept running her pace. If they wanted to fail, let them.

Steve's group quickly found Grimlock happily bearing down on them and at his order they began to fire on their target. Naturally it made the huge earth birthed Cybertronian upset that he was being fired upon and he swept his tail around to smash their defense in response. Bots scattered as their cover shattered around them with the majority running back to the other bots that had probably the better plan. In the rush past her, Ruby had gotten clipped in the shoulder, sending her spinning as she fell to the ground, landing on her left hand side in the middle of the roadway. The stomping of the approaching Dinobot shook the ground violently, but all she could do was look up at the approaching foe.

* * *

Ruby was actually sitting outside with Silverbolt and Rattrap as they waited for Optimus to join them in the fresh air before they would continue their search. The only way she had gotten away with such a 'bold' move with the other rodent fighter was reminding him that she had not actually been safer trapped inside the base. That only made Rattrap grumble at how he kept getting beaten by logic lately.

The doors opened up, Optimus not wasting time giving orders as he exited. "Rattrap, you and Silverbolt take grid Alpha-2."

"Having a picnic without me?" an almost timid voice asked, making all four of the Maximal's look in its direction in a happy shock. Cheetor had managed to sneak up on the base unheard by the three that were already outside, having walked the whole way so he could use the time to think. He was completely healed, standing there trying to calm his nerves about his return, unsure of what the others were thinking about him right now.

"Heh-hey, Spots!" Rattrap exclaimed, the extent of the relief that flooded through him at seeing his friend in one piece after the night before nightmare would be one that he'd only know, but he would still show his joy. "Eh, yer lookin' good, ya know, for a dead bot."

"Cheetor, where have you been?" Optimus asked sharply, his protective side almost parental at this point, making him sound like a father asking his son why he stayed out so late at night.

"Sorry, Big Bot," the scout had began quietly, trying to think of a good reason he had vanished on them all, gently toeing a stone as his mind raced, "I was, uh, taking care of that monster that tried to recycle Ruby and me."

Quickly glancing over at the femme that was still sitting on the boulder, Cheetor realized that she must have known the truth. She was there, right beside him as he changed. He remembered in the rush of memories when he woke up at how scared she was; the look of fear on her face had cut him to the core. She could have told the others what had happened, that what he was saying right now was a flat out lie.

But she didn't. Ruby had that same gentle look of concern on her face that she had the night before when she had taken care of him until he fell asleep. Could her reaction have been a part of his nightmare all along? Even the flashes of Dinobot's image protecting her from his attack?

Optimus drew his attention back up to the scout's commander. "Really?" he asked, his arms crossed over his torso as he thrummed the fingers of one hand off of the armor on his opposite arm.

"Oh! Y-yeah, yeah!" Cheetor couldn't help but laugh a bit as he realized they believed him so easily. "It won't be bothering us again, you can count on that!"

Recalling the conversation he had not long ago between Depth Charge and Ruby, Optimus knew there was more to what Cheetor was saying. The fact that Ruby wasn't calling the kid out on the lie, especially since she's been showing more of Dinobot's argumentative side as of late, made him curious. But there was something that he still had to do.

"Well, since that's been taken care of there's no point in keeping you two," Primal had said to Silverbolt and Rattrap, since he had given them orders to search. "Cheetor and I will be in after I've examined the cyber-creatures remains."

Cheetor realized that he had been caught, but there way was no way to back out of his story now. It'd make him look worse in front of the others. How was he going to get out of this one?

"Optimus, may I go, too?" Ruby asked quietly as she stood up on the boulder while the other two went back inside the base. "After what happened I need to see it, to know that it's not going to try to hunt me down."

That made Cheetor's fuel pump sink hard. He did attack her, but she _must_ have known it was him.

Primal wondered exactly what it was that she needed to see, and he let curiosity get the better of him. Transforming into his jet mode, he hovered there for her. "We should be able to keep you both safe. Hop on."

Ruby gently climbed onto his wing, moving to his center before she sat down above where his cockpit opened, and gently patted his top to let him know she was situated. It came across as completely natural to her, the action accomplished with a practiced ease that he had to smile to himself. She was use to him like he is now, and it gave him a renewed peace about the survival of the Maximals. "We're ready when you are, Cheetor." Primal gently informed his scout.

Cheetor sighed softly, but turned as he transformed into his beast mode, activated his jets and took off.

The trio traveled into the thicker part of the jungle, near the cavern that Cheetor had woken up, and settled to the ground, Optimus letting Ruby gently slide off of his wing before he transformed into his robotic mode. Upon hearing the primates that were in the surrounding trees he urged himself into his beast mode, feeling the atmosphere relax a bit more around him. They slowly walked through the thick vegetation, all silent as they progressed. Ruby, having gone into her own beast mode, had eventually scuttled enough ahead that she was in sight, but it allowed the guys a chance to speak.

Eventually the weight of it all made Cheetor break the silence, making Primal look away from the tempting snack that was just in his eye line. "I don't see why we have to do this. Don't you trust me?"

"Normally, yes," Primal answered without hesitation, "but at the moment I think you're hiding something."

"I'm not hiding … anything!" the young scout snapped. At the show of anger his optics suddenly began to glow brighter, and he turned his back as he fought to control the angry animal he was keeping hidden from the group. After all these stellar cycles and they still treated him like a kid. When he felt like it was back under control, he turned back to Optimus. "I don't see why everyone's giving me such a hard time."

"Because we _care_, and because I think I know the truth. I just want you to trust me enough to tell me."

"Alright. Alright!" Cheetor finally admitted to himself on a sigh that he had to trust his friends as much as he wanted them to trust him. "It's like this."

The sudden snapping of a branch drew the three's attention to their surroundings, Ruby finally realizing that the animals, that had been happy and relaxed in their presence, were now silent. Primal's protective nature kicked in as he searched for the cause of the disturbance, using both his animal aspects and his mechanical in the process. The sudden heat signature that came from the thick foliage kicked him into action, but it wasn't aimed at him.

"Cheetor, look out!" he shouted as he jumped in to push his subordinate to safety, but ended up taking the laser bolt in the process.

Ruby dove to avoid being squashed, transforming and rolling onto her feet as she did, watching carefully for the next attack to come.

"Big Bot! No!" Cheetor shouted, quickly gaining his feet and running for their commander, but stumbled to a halt as he took in the damage. "No! Optimus!"

With the sudden overwhelming swell of emotions through his system, Cheetor no longer could keep the feral creature contained, despite his struggles to do so. With a shout the wild animal broke free, sending shards of his old structure flying through the area. Ruby slowly pulled out the sword she was borrowing from Dinobot, its blade slowly spinning, as she put herself halfway between Cheetor and Optimus and waited for the creature to attack again. When he seemed in control she relaxed her watch a bit.

"Cheetor, watch out for the other bot," Optimus groaned as he lifted his head.

Instinct took over, the scout's mutated spark ejecting his upgraded weapon, which flipped into the air only to be neatly caught. "Which bot? Oh you mean this bot right here?"

Poor Waspinator flew right into the shot that Cheetor had perfectly let loose over his shoulder. As the heavy footsteps approached, Cheetor turned to face the bot that had a hand in making him what he was now. "You hurt my friend, freak bot."

Ruby struggled not to make a sound at the sudden pulse of rage from the second spark she carried at the very sight of the twisted version of her sparkmate stepped through the foliage. Optimus had noticed her falter a couple of steps as she grabbed at the orb on her torso plating.

"Yeess," Dinobot-2 replied sarcastically, "and now, I shall neutralize you!"

Smoothly dodging the laser blast, Cheetor calmly dusted his shoulder off. "I don't think so. In fact, I think it's time to shred some Pred."

The classic tactical training that echoed from his past told Dinobot-2 that the real challenging fight would be from the scout that wasn't in control, but attacking him directly was not getting that reaction. Quickly twisting his head, the newly formed Predacon sent off a new blast in the direction of the Maximal's comrades. Ruby didn't have time to move before she felt the sudden pain as the strike hit her right leg, making her shout out in pain as she fell. The blast had also struck Optimus in the side, since he was directly behind her at the time. That got the reaction he wanted.

Ruby struggled to watch the fight and to keep Dinobot's spark from pulling away from her form. "No, you can't. It's too late to take over that body. Rampage's spark is too powerful and it would destroy you."

Primal could hear her mumbling something, but couldn't exactly make out the words over the sound of the two wild animals that were fighting viciously. With a groan he managed to activate his communicator, calling for help.

The fight was impressive to watch, Cheetor managing to fend off Dinobot-2 until the sound of reinforcements drew the Predacon's attention away from the fight. Realizing that, at the moment, he would not be victorious he gave the warning that the fight would continue before departing. Once he was out of sight, Ruby was able to relax some onto the soft ground, both hands holding her injury. Cheetor slowly approached her as she sat on the ground, watching him. With him so close Ruby gently reached out and softly brushed her hand down his nose a couple times.

"It's going to be alright," she whispered.

* * *

Ruby calmly watched as the huge dinosaur based Autobot came stomping up quickly … only to pass her as she sat up on the road. This was not how the simulation ended the last time, and she knew that the program couldn't have been changed since he was chasing her as she drew him away from the others. Quickly twisting herself around she watched as he gleefully chased after the group that had decided to do things their way, tagging the ones that were too slow to get out of his way.

_What changed?_ She asked herself as she got back to her feet. It was as she began to run after the others that she realized the answer to her question. She had stopped running from Grimlock, so he had stopped chasing her as he focused on the others trying to flee. With a shake of her head she altered her course to run straight for the Dinobot.

"Sometimes crazy works," she mumbled, quoting one of her favorite story tellers.

Bada Bang looked across the way at her twin to check to see if she had spotted Ruby. Bada Boom motioned that their target was approaching and that they all needed to be ready. Looking back at the small group that was with her, Bang motioned for them to prepare to spring the trap, every one watching as the towering bot headed their way. They actually did their best not to laugh at how comical the other group looked as they tried to flee from the predator, but were going to use them as a distraction to take it down.

When Grimlock came into the area, Bada Bang sounded the call for the attack to begin. The group that she and her twin lead came running out, preparing to begin their assault, when they saw Ruby come running up to the beast itself, leapt onto its tail and began to run up its back. When she got to his head Ruby flipped over, doing a half twist in the air, and reached out to touch her hand to the tip of his nose as she came down in front of the beast yelling out "Tag!" in the process. When she landed Ruby just smiled up at the Dinobot as he focused down at her.

"Me Grimlock not the winner," he said with a pout before he slowly vanished, the cityscape shortly afterwards.

"Congratulations," a voice called from above them, making the group look over at their instructor as he walked over to them, "I will have your grades for your final posted later today. Class dismissed." The students filed out of the room, leaving the observers discussing over what they had seen that day.

Ruby had paused, looking back at their instructor as Cheetor was speaking with the others in their group, particularly the human with them. Rhinox looked over at her and smiled with a nod, letting her know that she did well in his eyes. Quietly she returned the nod before she felt someone grab her arm.

"Oh my gosh!" Boom exclaimed as she began to drag her fellow green femme out of the room with her and her sister, "That was awesome!"

"How did you know it was going to work?" Bang asked, happy the ordeal was over but not nearly as hyper about it as her sister was.

"I didn't," Ruby admitted, but she began to explain to her friends as they walked out of the chamber how she came to the conclusion she did.

* * *

She waited for the lecture to begin as she settled herself down in an empty seat in the command center that night, but it never came. Rhinox was utilizing the table as he worked on something during his turn for the night monitor duty, but he smiled kindly at her as she joined him.

"I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this, but we might not have a choice," he quietly told her. "We're not sure how much longer your form can carry both sparks, so we'll have to store your second one in here until we can find a blank stasis pod to put it in."

It was a depressing thought, but her Grand-sparker was right. She couldn't handle this for much longer. Ruby could also feel Dinobot's guilt over putting her in danger like he had, but she didn't blame him, nor was she going to give up. There were other pods out there, she just needed to find one and soon.

"What can I help with?" she asked, making her seat join his at the table.

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading!**

As I said before, Cirus Nelos belongs to Cyrex. The Bada Twins are mine. They belong in the same story with Cirus, where they are humanoid, but I really couldn't pass up the chance to toss them in as well.


	7. Ch 07: Proving Grounds

Grumbling as he made his way back to his base, Waspinator really began to question his part in this strange partnership where he was the middle man between Megatron and the supposed future Megatron. In his front insect legs he carried a small container that held several data pads, each one containing instructions and information for the younger one to implement for the guarantee of the Predacon's victory over the Maximals. Waspinator realized that did more flying between the two than anything else, including the strange science experiment he had aided his leader in, which resulted in a twisted version of Dinobot being brought into the Predacon fold. If Waspinator was really as vital as the future Megatron claimed him to be, then why was he still being treated the same way?

As the landscape, slowly darkening as the sun set, changed from the barren rock formations to the charred ground that surrounded the lava pit the Darkside had crashed landed in a couple stellar-cycles back, the flying Predacon was glad to be home and nearly done with his current mission, badly needing to be on his recharge berth so he could get a few mega-cycles of rest. At least this time he wouldn't need to stop by the CR tank first before doing so, so that made it a good day.

The new defensive program automatically lowered the shield that surrounded the ship as he approached. Having long ago learned to fear the sight of it when it had adorned the Axalon, Waspinator always slowly approached the glowing mass. Tasting that defensive program first hand so many times made him glad that it was in their hands, though the first few days after Megatron had installed it he still found himself shot out of the sky as he approached the base.

Eager to be done with his task, Waspinator flew directly to the main control room and stopped in front of Megatron, who turned in his chair to face his subordinate as he approached. After setting the case in the outstretched hand of the tyrant, Waspinator transformed and soon stood on one of the floating platforms, saluting his commander.

"Wazzpinator report delivery zuccezzful," the flyer fought a yawn at the end.

"Very good, Waspinator, yeess," Megatron smiled darkly as he opened the box and pulled out the top data pad, his chair rotating to the side a bit, but after a quick read the tyrant frowned thoughtfully. It appears that his future self needed the use of more than just one subordinate and few pieces of equipment for what he promised to be a fruitful outcome for their cause. With a quick swing of his arm, Megatron slammed the data pad into Waspinpator's abdomen, making the wasp double over a bit as he struggled to grab a hold of the item.

"Gather the components listed and be ready to deliver them as soon as Dinobot returns," the Predacon tyrant ordered as he closed the container with a resounding crash. "Inferno will be sub-commander on this mission."

"Yezz, Megatron," Waspinator replied dejectedly, realizing that he would not get any recharge time in soon.

* * *

After the sour ending meeting of yet another scan of Black Arachnia, the infiltrator had gone to the bridge to blow off some steam. Just because he was stuck on monitor duty, didn't mean Rattrap couldn't enjoy it. Thanks to Rhinox's brilliant mind they were able to retrieve most of the programs that were saved to storage drives on the computer systems, which included most of the games Rattrap had snuck onto the system during his many late nights at the scanning station. There were even a few gems in the mix that he had either programmed himself or modified the programming, adding his favorite target to one of his favorite games.

Ruby had already been on the bridge, tinkering with whatever device she and Rhinox were currently working on together, the clear cylinder center device capped one end with a handle and the other a claw like device. If he didn't know the old lugnut any better, Rattrap could swear that Rhinox was making some sort of painful torture device. Ruby, on the other hand, he would put it past her at the moment to be doing such a thing.

Ruby knew when Rattrap joined her on the bridge, but kept focused on her task. The spark extraction device was almost physically complete, but it wouldn't successfully keep the spark alive unless she had the program perfectly coded. The power core was suppose to mimic the Cybertronian's natural form allowing a temporary stasis hold until they could find another stasis pod. She agreed with building the spark extraction device, but it was not to keep Dinobot's spark separate from her form. She was planning on using it to pull out Rampage's spark core from Dinobot-2's body.

She had a sinking feeling that Dinobot's spark was suppose to fuse into Dinobot-2's structure before it came online, the mountain top where Megatron had performed the one that surely had a strong emotional pull for her dear velociraptor. The tug she felt inside was a gentle confirmation that Dinobot agreed that was his best tactical move. They both believed that they had lost the opportunity when she was not allowed to go to the pod and Rampage's spark core had too long to make the form its own.

Rattrap was well into some old earth style arcade fighting game when she moved over to a console nearby to work on the coding. His loud enthusiasm irritated Dinobot's spark, which actually made Ruby laugh as she gently patted her torso plate to 'soothe' him before she continued to slowly read the information on the screen as it scrolled by.

Glancing at her sidelong between fights, Rattrap was calmly admiring the gentle smile she had as she went back to work. It had been a long time since he had seen that look on her face, at least not since before the mountain top incident with the Golden Disk. She became so weighed down with everything that happened since then, the loss of their friends seeming to be a particularly heavy burden she had shouldered more blame than any of them wished on her. He could only guess that the sparkling she carried was the only reason she wasn't giving up hope when everything had crashed down around them.

With a shrug he went back to his games … er … monitor duty. So into the defeat of the digital Predacon foe that Rattrap had failed to hear the lift operate, letting Silverbolt step onto the upper command deck.

"I cannot find Black Arachnia anywhere," the Fuzor stated in an extremely frustrated tone. He had been called in from his scout patrol to help soothe his love, but she was nowhere to be found in the base. Ruby had looked over at him but shook her head 'no' at the Fuzor's silent question of seeing her. With no other choice he proceeded over to the scanning station as Rattrap put everything he had into his game. He only waited a moment for Rattrap to acknowledge his presence before he turned the station back to the scanning relay. Naturally this made the infiltrator upset, bemoaning the loss of all his hard work; however, this was not Silverbolt's main concern.

Commanding the computer to run a scan, the Fuzor became deeply confused as to why Black Arachnia's signature was heading so quickly away from the base. "She's headed toward Predacon ground, but why?"

"Obvious, ain't it?" Rattrap was not really surprised by the information, always harboring a deep sense of impending betrayal thanks to all of his encounters with Dinobot, and promptly began to get up to go tell Primal his 'I told you so's. "I'll just go tell Optimus-"

"Don't!" Silverbolt suddenly grabbed his shoulder, holding fast to the retreating rodent.

"Heeey! Hands of de metal Sir Drools-a-Lot. I am not in de mood."

"I … I am sorry," Silverbolt backed off from Rattrap some, but still pleaded his case. "Give me a chance to bring her back."

Rattrap quickly twisted around to face his comrade, trying to ease the bad news as much as he could, at least in his own way. "Wise up, Bird-dog! A Pred is a Pred."

"Well, perhaps, but she's my responsibility. She would not betray us."

"Ha! 'nd I hate cheese," Rattrap sarcastically replied.

Silverbolt still would not be denied his chance, pulling out his trump card. "You trusted the old Dinobot."

"'nd regretted it, more dan once." It was still enough to pull at his spark-strings, recalling the night on top of the mountain when he saw the struggle Dinobot faced in his dear friend's optics. The silent plea for forgiveness despite the actions being unforgiveable. "Alright … ya got a mega-cycle."

Silverbolt's ears perked up. "We'll be back sooner. Oh, and Rattrap, thank you."

Not wasting any of the time that Rattrap graciously gave him, the Fuzor quickly transformed and headed straight out the blast doors, leaving a mumbling Rattrap wondering if he had a glitch in his programming to have become so soft.

Having stopped her work to watch and listen to the pair, Ruby tilted her head to the side a bit as she focused completely on Rattrap, who had gone back to searching his game files. "You honestly regretted it?"

He winced a bit before slowly turning to face her. Her tone wasn't harsh, just softly curious. The look she had on her face, that soft, understanding smile, made him realize what possibly had tamed the savage Predacon that had joined their fold so long ago. "It's kinda hard not ta feel betrayed when 'e's about ta run ya through."

"Would you have changed any of it?" she asked quietly. "If you knew what was going to happen, would you have changed something?"

"Yeah," Rattrap turned back towards his station, "I wouldn't 'ave put so much trust in 'im."

Nodding, Ruby turned back towards her own station. He was still grieving over the loss of his best friend, so she wouldn't really take any of his angry words to heart. She knew the deeper truth about how he felt. It was part of the reason she was in her particular predicament in the first place. Gently patting her torso a couple times to soothe Dinobot's spark down again, she went back to work on her coding.

* * *

With as much skill as they could master, Rhinox and Waspinator were able to pull drones off of their patrols and have them back in less than ten nano-clicks. Hedging their chances by infecting as many of the Vehicons as they could, the pair desperately tried to turn the tide of this fight in their favor. Rhinox, unfortunately, had a sinking suspicion that it was only a matter of time before they were caught, though it would most likely be himself than Waspinator due to the age of their forms. It was rough enough to get Waspinator transferred into a new form; it was too dangerous to attempt the same for himself.

Watching the patrols, the pair had realized that there had been no change in their pattern. No increase or decrease of groups that passed, nor were their times altered in any way. Luck could be favoring them and the tyrant had not noticed, but they would still not press that luck. They would still act as if Megatron had noticed the disappearance of some of his drones but have his mindless soldiers still keep to their routine to lull them into a false sense of security. This was war; they would treat it as such.

They moved to the energon storehouse that they were hitting that week, carefully keeping to the shadows to avoid detection. It was as they were nearing the entrance they had made two runs before when Waspinator suddenly slammed Rhinox into the wall. Instinct had the Maximal struggling against the surprisingly strong hold, but when he saw that his companion not focused at him but up at the sky, he calmed down.

"What is it?" he whispered.

Waspinator shook his head slowly, obviously listening to something. Rhinox barely heard the strange sound overhead when Waspinator quickly pushed him into the entrance and quickly followed him into the building. Behind the stack of crates the two freedom fighters waited for the strange noise passed.

"That sounds like … ," Rhinox began.

"Sub-commander Kiss-butt," Waspinator finished.

Quickly moving his hand up to cover his mouth, Rhinox snorted a bit as he fought laughing at the nickname Waspinator had given Inferno. It rather surprised the flyer to have someone actually laugh at his names, instead of taking their anger out on him about it.

"We'll wait him out before we move," Rhinox suggested quietly. "Did you know he was still active?"

"No, Waspinator not know that Ant-bot still functioned. Waspinator not know where he came from."

Rhinox frowned as they heard several drones land on top of the building, the strange noise going quiet. None of this was good.

* * *

Several mega-cycles later, Ruby had fallen asleep at her station, her head resting on her left fist that she had propped it up with as she began to grow tired from reading the scrolling script. Rattrap had completely forgotten to keep track of time as he got into the first person shooter game he had created using the schematics of the Axalon, the basic enemy his favorite green and black stripped flying target. It was Optimus and Rhinox stepping onto the deck that suddenly drew his attention back to reality.

"Rattrap, where's Silverbolt and Black Arachnia?" Primal asked, not really pleased to have caught the person on watch duty not paying attention to the scanners.

Ruby snorted a bit as her head suddenly dropped off of her fist, mumbling quickly as she looked around, "I'm up. I'm up." She was rewarded with a gentle pat on the head from Rhinox.

"I … uh … thought dey were in de lab, heh, with you," the poor rodent stammered, not really wanting to get in trouble over the pair.

"There's no sign of them on the scanners, internal or external," their engineer said quietly, switching the station back to the scanning relay.

This information did not make Primal particularly happy. His orders were once again not being followed. "Optimus to Silverbolt," he called into his communicator, "Come in immediately, that's an order."

Unfortunately the only reply Primal received was static.

"They must be in Megatron's jamming zone."

That was the worst idea that Rhinox could have suggested. It also did not give Primal a good reason as to why they would be out there. A glance at Rattrap showed that the Transmetal rodent was worried about something, with quite possibly the same idea running through is processor as well.

"Locate them and let me know as soon as you do," Optimus ordered before he transformed, heading out of the base to try to locate them himself.

Rhinox turned back to Rattrap, the much smaller bot looking up at his friend. "What do you know, Rattrap?"

Unfortunately Primal's second in command had guilty written all over him as he winced. "She was headin' ta Pred ground 'n Bolt went afta 'er."

With a sigh and a shake of his head, Rhinox began to punch in the orders he needed to try to bypass the jamming stations Megatron had set up. The sooner they located their missing friends the better. It wasn't just the threat from one Megatron they had to worry about.

* * *

Megatron paced in his beast mode, impatiently waiting for his request to be fulfilled. He had carefully selected his location, meticulously planned out every detail, and even created back-up plans for if this one failed. It was past time that his victory was granted to him. He had worked too hard through both runs of the Beast Wars to still fail.

The sun was well overhead before the tell-tale buzzing of Waspinator approaching was heard, with the thrumming of Inferno's flight mechanism and the heavy foot falls of Dinobot-2 adding to it. The wasp was carrying the small create that held the all too important device that would secure his ultimate victory.

"My Queen," Inferno looked surprised at the very bot they were meeting in a small clearing in the forest.

"We have much to prepare for," Megatron said with a pleased smile, marching up to Waspinator as he transformed to take the crate from his hand. Opening it up, he looked at the device within with his good optic. "Tonight will be the beginning of the end of the Maximals, yeess."

* * *

Rattrap did not want to go near the lecture that he overheard Optimus giving Silverbolt, even though he really wanted to add his 'told-ya-so' to it. Instead he idly searched his files for some other game to play. Sitting up a bit, the infiltrator focused on a strange program grouping that popped up on his screen. It wasn't one of his, nor was it any coding that he recognized as something that Rhinox created either. It also had a strange encryption blocking him from directly accessing it.

"But when has dat ever stopped me?" he asked himself, interlocking his fingers before he gave his arms a stretch forward to loosen them up. This challenge looked like it would be fun.

It took a while, but Rattrap was rather pleased with himself as everything opened up for him. At first he was confused, the files seemed akin to a personal log or diary written by Dinobot. "So dis is whatcha do when you were on monitor duty, eh? Kinda lame, but dat's what I'd expect from ya."

It was when he glanced over a particular group of coding that Rattrap sat up abruptly, his optics going wide in shock. It wasn't a log. Dinobot had backed-up his memories, the last one occurring a week before he died. Slowly ideas began to click into place. If he could upload them into Dinobot-2's processor the Maximals might get the much needed warrior back.

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thank you for reading!**

Ah, much too much to prepare for the next part.


	8. Ch 08: Dark Glass - 1 (New)

Rattrap did his best to hide his anxious demeanor, but he knew that he had to wait for the perfect time to speak with Optimus and Rhinox. Fortunately this gave him plenty of time to think about what he was going to say and any possible counter argument that the pair might have. Unfortunately the pair always seemed to be busy with one issue or another and the others in the base always had to be walking around at just the wrong time. He guessed that he really wasn't trying to keep a secret, but there was just something about this that he didn't wish to get the hopes of his fellow Maximal's up about, especially Ruby.

It was around mid afternoon that he had finally come across the chance he was looking for. Rattrap had just returned from his parameter scout patrol to find Rhinox working on that strange torture device, a specialized scan running on the console behind him, while he and Optimus discussed daily base matters calmly as if they were just chatting over drinks.

Giving a quick glance around to make sure that his luck was holding out for him, Rattrap decided now was the time to play his best hand. Utilizing the lift, the infiltrator walked onto the upper command deck, tossing a warm greeting out to the pair. "Hey dere Boss Op! Hiya Rhinox! Just the pair I wanted ta see!"

Optimus knew instantly that Rattrap was up to something just by the greeting alone. Several ideas ran through is processor as to exactly what game the Transmetal Maximal was trying to play, but he would still hear him out. He was, after all, Primal's second in command for a reason. "What is it, Rattrap?"

"I, uh, ran across some strange programin' in de system last night while I was keepin' myself occupied durin' monitor duty," he stated somewhat calmly, tossing a thumb back at the station he frequented, " Somethin' dat I dink is gonna help us out."

Rhinox, who had turned slightly in his seat to look up at Rattrap, was puzzled about the concept. Was there a virus in their system planted by Megatron or one of his forces? Or even from the strange Megatron, since the Axalon had been unguarded for so long. "What sort of 'strange programming'?"

"It seems dat Ol' Chopper-face 'ad made it a habit ta back up his memories 'n he was savin' 'em in my gamin' folder."

He didn't miss the look that Optimus and Rhinox shared, the unspoken conversation they seemed to be able to have that always seemed to irritate at least Rattrap. This pair had a way of communicating at times that they only seemed to understand, which had lead to the misunderstanding with Black Arachnia the night before.

Optimus knew that Rhinox had to be thinking the same thing he was. Was this Dinobot's original plan or was this an adaptation he had made because of the possible changes that occurred? If so, then what good would the backed up memories be? Unless …

"I was thinkin' of uploadin' 'em inta Dinobot's clone." Both bots sudden focus on him made Rattrap feel rather awkward. "We know dat he knew Megatron's plan from de beginnin', dat he struggled with de knowledge more times dan I could count. Maybe we can get dis one on our side, too."

Rhinox frowned at the thought. "There's no way to know if that it would actually work."

"'nd why's dat? You were able ta bring Optimus back from de dead," Rattrap stated bluntly, one fist on one hip as he motioned up to the towering Maximal.

"That was different, Rattrap," Rhinox said with a sigh. "I was able to bring Optimus' spark back, which is the core of any Cybertronian being. Just implanting the memories is not a guaranteed way of bringing someone back. If it does fail to change the personality of the already existing spark in the body then you're opening up a gateway that gives Megatron unfettered access to all of Dinobot's memories, which would include our defensive tactics."

"For bootin' up cold," Rattrap whined, "Megatron's already got Sentinel. What more could he possibly get from a few possible memories?"

_Dangerous things that Ruby had shared with him_, the engineer thought to himself.

"I don't think this is what Dinobot had intended when he backed up his memories, Rattrap," Optimus chose to say, "Nor do I believe that it is a wise idea to attempt to try to get so close to the new Dinobot. We've seen how vicious he is."

"But Optimus-"

"I said 'no', Rattrap, and that's final."

In her quarters, Ruby had her arms crossed over her abdomen as she listened in on the conversation. It was bad of her, she knew it, to have planted the bug she had in the holo-table, but she needed to be able to keep one step ahead of her foe. Besides, Rattrap was the one that taught her the trick, so that made it okay, right?

This was one subject that no-one really spoke to her about. As close as she had ever come to hearing about events surrounding the second Dinobot was that Rattrap had attempted to speak with the newly formed fighter in an attempt to draw him to the Maximal side, believing that the clone could possibly possess the same honor as its namesake.

She knew that Rattrap would disobey Optimus' orders not to try to implant the memories. She also had a feeling that this would be an ideal opportunity for her foe to take out one of the survivors. Twisting away from her desk, Ruby marched over to where she kept her weapons stored at. She would keep an eye on Rattrap and try to keep him alive.

* * *

The roof above them violently exploded, sending metal shards raining down on the two freedom fighters and opening them up for the attack from above. Waspinator took to the air, buzzing quickly around the drones that flew in from the new entrance at Inferno's battle-cry "For the Royalty!". Rhinox gave his ally support from the ground, but had to turn some of his attention to the doorways as they were torn down by the ground units that joined in the fight.

"We need to get out of here!" Rhinox yelled in the breaks of firing his chain guns.

Waspinator took out what drones he could with the laser shot from his optics as Inferno cackled after him. "Waspinator not like plan!"

Rhinox focused his weaponry up at Inferno, the sharper shaped, bright red Predacon flyer turning his way in surprise before being pelted with several rounds of hot ammo, giving Waspinator the opportunity to flee from the hole blown in the roof of the building. Once his companion was gone the Maximal transformed quickly into his beast mode, gave a couple swipes of the ground with his right front leg, and charged through the mass of drones that stood between him and the doorway. Even though a few strikes of laser shot hit his thick hide, the rhinoceros never slowed. He only groaned a bit and focused past the pain. He knew that he had to quickly outrun the ground forces before received too much more damage.

* * *

With most of the crew out in the field, Rhinox manned the scanners as he still attempted to finalize the programming for the spark extraction device. Much like the programming he was working on to remove the Predacon shell programming from Black Arachnia, in the slim chance that she would actually choose to become a Maximal again, he wanted to make sure that everything was absolutely perfect. It was nice that he was able to come up with some crazy things on the fly that actually worked in their favor, but when it came to directly affecting three Maximals physically he was going to milk every nano-click he could pour into the solutions.

The scanning station beside him began to beep out a notification that it had found something. Standing from his current seat, Rhinox made his way over as Optimus, with his usual unexplainable great timing he always seemed to have, walked up to the platform.

"What is it?" Primal asked, knowing that Rhinox was running a high priority scan. The Maximal commander was not upset as his engineer took his time to answer, knowing his friend well enough to be patient.

"It's a stasis pod beacon," the green and gold based bot half turned from his station to look at his friend.

Optimus' expression lit up, "That's wonderful! What are the coordinates?" When Rhinox didn't look as pleased, but only shook his head at the news, Primal calmed. "What is it?"

"It doesn't belong to any of the pods that we have stored in our records. It is possible that the crash or the surge corrupted it though. I don't know if it is a blank or not."

Primal frowned at the information as well. "Suggestions?"

"I'll go and check it out," Rhinox offered, "If the pod is damaged then I might have to be quick on fixing it."

"Do you want to take Ruby?"

Thinking it over for a nano-click, the engineer shook his head again. "I fear taxing her body more than it could handle at the moment, especially if it isn't a blank."

Primal nodded, "I'll have Cheetor and Rattrap meet you at the coordinates."

With a final nod Rhinox quickly headed to the platform, letting it lower him to the rocky floor below.

Ruby sat up a bit when the blast doors opened up, allowing Optimus and Rhinox to exit the base. She had managed to escape to the gun turret for a bit of fresh air, reading over one of the literary works that she had found in Dinobot's belongings. The two looked serious, but Rhinox managed to smile a bit up at her and wave before he transformed, rushing off from the base in beast mode. As absurd as it was, Ruby just waved back before she watched him leave, blinking slowly in confusion.

She turned that confused look to Optimus as he stepped up beside her, standing almost eye level to her. "What's going on?"

"Rhinox's scanners had detected a possible stasis pod. The reading seemed odd so he went to check it out with Cheetor and Rattrap."

Part of her tension eased when Primal told her that he wasn't going to be alone at the location, but there was still a lot of ground to cover. She still frowned as she watched the tail end of Rhinox disappear in the distance. "I should have gone, too."

"He'll be fine," Primal, too, looked into the distance. "He was worried about you and suggested that you stay."

Ruby's frown deepened. _There weren't any other pods detected. He said that they couldn't find anymore. So what is going on?_

* * *

Rhinox had to slow down as the jungle thickened around him. The sun, which had been high above him when he had left the base, was nowhere to be seen. There were a few thin strips of light as the wind blew the upper foliage around, but otherwise it was foreboding. He was hoping that Cheetor and Rattrap could find him in this mess.

Some of the smaller animals had quieted down when he first stepped into the area, but soon picked up their almost cheerful chorus again as he made his way through. They didn't see him as a threat and it allowed him to enjoy nature again. It was something he missed when he had to stay at base all the time.

He finally closed in on the coordinates the signal was coming from, only to find a small clearing which a small box rested in the middle of. The sudden silence of the birds alerted him that there was a predator nearby, so Rhinox slowly backed out of the clearing to avoid being seen. When Inferno and Waspinator burst out of the thick foliage across the clearing, heading straight for him, Rhinox transformed and prepared to greet them with both guns blazing. It was the sound of the growling behind him that made him turn quickly to look over his shoulder just in time to see Dinobot-2 in beast mode come right at him.

* * *

The smooth metallic roads of Cybertron made it easier for the aged rhinoceros to run from his enemies. Unfortunately the smooth roads also made it easier for his enemies to continue their pursuit of him. Even running at his top speed his pursuers were gaining on him. The truth became glaringly obvious as he glanced back, but he still attempted to push more into his run. He was already cycling air harshly through his cooling system and knew that he couldn't keep it up for much longer.

The plan, if they ever got caught like they had been, was to split up, lose the enemy, and try to meet back up at one of the actually abandoned warehouses that resided in an old Autobot lower district. If they did not meet up by a certain time the following day the other would continue their plan for survival. There was no promise of seeing another sunrise once Megatron got his hands on either one of them and they knew it.

Every time they had discussed it Waspinator had been very vocal about his dislike for the plan, that he did not like the fact that he was being asked to abandon his only real friend. The only reason the wasp agreed to it was the feeling he owed Squirrel-bot for unknowingly trying to harm her in the past. They both agreed that they had to keep the opposition alive from their timeline; that giving up was not an option.

The sound of the aerial drones joining in the chase behind him only sent another surge of panic through his systems. They were either back-up units to aid in his capture or they were the ones that had perused and possibly captured Waspinator, thus turning their task to him. He was going to have to stand his ground now and face his end like Dinobot had: with honor.

As he searched around him for a place to stand his ground, the rhino suddenly felt himself being grabbed from above. The natural instinct was to struggle as he was being lifted into the air, his stout legs wiggling in desperation.

"Waspinator got Rhino-bot," said a voice from above him, making the Maximal relax a bit as he looked up.

"This wasn't the plan," was all he could think of to say, relief temporarily flooding through him.

"Waspinator not like plan. Waspinator always left behind by faster allies. Waspinator not leave only friend behind."

"Sure you weren't a Maximal protoform?"

Any amusement they might have shared vaporized as they felt the sudden burst of flames hit them from the right hand side. The pair fell from the sky in a near fireball, tumbling to a harsh halt against a wall. They only took a moment to shake off the pain before they transformed into their robot modes, turning to face the mad, laughing Predacon as he focused down on them. They pulled out and aimed their weaponry as the almost cloud like mass of drones came up behind Inferno.

* * *

Ruby focused down at the spent chain gun that rested in the center of the holo-table next to the spark extractor, shaking subtly as her hands were clenched tightly at her sides. It was all that Cheetor and Rattrap had found at the coordinates that Optimus had given them. The pair had smelt Waspinator, Inferno, and Dinobot in the area with faint traces of Megatron as well. Optimus had promptly began making a rescue plan, but they were needing to split up to try to find their missing friend since the lack of track marks told them that the fliers had carried him off.

Rattrap ditched the meeting as soon as Optimus had told him that he was to stay at the base with Ruby, so he went to go double check everything before the others left. The lift opened up, allowing him access to the upper command center. Gently he walked over to her and softly patted her shoulder. "They'll get 'im back."

Ruby turned from the table after placing the chain gun and spark extractor in her subspace pocket, making Rattrap's jaw dropped at what she said next.

"Get ready to transfer those memories, Rattrap."

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own Beast Wars/Beasties. Thanks for reading.**

Ooooo! The infamous Dark Glass. The episode that they should have made that would have helped the ending of the series make so much more sense.


	9. Ch 09: Dark Glass - 2 (New)

Rhinox grunted as he hit the rocky ground, pain shooting through form from the sudden stop. He managed to get to his knees before something hard and sharp grabbed a hold of his shoulders. Glancing up to his left the Maximal could see the massive bone white and silver claws with a subtle glow of red, the metallic growl only confirmed the fact that Dinobot was holding him in place. Getting out of this mess would take more mind than force. The slow thrum of an approaching presence made him look forward.

"Rhiiinoooox," Megatron, in his beast mode, was giving his prisoner a pleased, yet dark, smile of victory, "Such a pleasure to see you again, Rhinox."

The whole interaction was hauntingly familiar, sending a fearful chill through Rhinox's frame. He knew that this was not the right Megatron; this was the foe that had attempted to end Ruby's life violently several times. Recalling that, the fear was quickly replaced by rage. He apparently tried to act on it only to have Dinobot press him back down to the rocky ground.

Megatron's glare darkened at the Maximal's actions, but it was not of his concern now. Turing to the fliers he began to give more orders. "I am expecting a retaliation soon," he said to Waspinator first, then turned to Inferno, "Bring her here."

The fire ant based fighter saluted, "As you command, Royalty!"

As the fliers took off, Rhinox began to struggle more. It was a trap to take out Ruby. How could he have been so blind? It was Megatron transforming and gripping Rhinox around the neck with the pinchers at the end of his tail that made him stop. The image of the damaged face that glared down at him was harrowing. The missing optic, and the damaged facial structure from the forceful removal, gave Rhinox a view that he really wished he could avoid, the motors and wires still moving in their natural pattern as if nothing was wrong.

"Haven't you figured it out by now?" Rhinox's face firmed as he glared into the one good optic, "No matter what you do you her, you can't defeat Ruby."

"That's why I will be taking care of my little vermin problem," the smile that slowly grew on Megatron's face chilled Rhinox to the spark core, "at the source."

* * *

Following her directions, Rattrap had Dinobot's memory files backed up and had found the secret passage that exited out the mountain side near the peak. He didn't want to think about this possible security risk to their base, nor the fact that the little femme knew about it and didn't tell them. "Probably 'cause she wanted an escape from us," he mumbled as he shoved a boulder away from the opening, letting the cool night air in past him.

As he was doing her bidding, he had watched as she bee-lined for the Ark. It was an odd action, but her actually accessing Teletraan brought up all sorts of suspicions again. The whole reason they were keeping Black Arachnia safe was due to the fact that she was the only one with the codes to the Autobot ship. If he had known that Ruby could access the ship as well, he would have gladly kicked the Predacon to the curb. It also brought up the many, many questions that kept coming up in his processor, like what was the massive shadow figure at the mountain the night Dinobot died and heading for the base as the Maximals headed to the mountain?

He was drawn out of his thoughts at the sound of someone scrambling up the rocks nearby, Ruby's beast head popping up as she crawled into the opening. "Got it?"

"Yeah, I got 'em."

"Let's go," she mumbled, but stopped when Rattrap didn't move. She just glanced up at the firm looking infiltrator, who had his arms crossed over his torso. "We have to hurry up and meet Depth Charge."

"Not till ya tell me what's goin' on."

Her frame shivered a bit, but it wasn't only the angry look, complete with glowing blue optics, she turned up at him made Rattrap pause. "Shut up, Vermin, and do what you're told!" Dinobot's voice snapped at him, complete with his breathy snarls.

"Gha!" Ruby said in her own voice, shivering again as her eyes closed, "Don't do that! That feels freaky."

Rattrap's jaw dropped, "What de heck was dat?"

Opening her eyes again, openly showing him her exhaustion and worry. "I have Dinobot's spark. It's a long story, but we have to hurry. We survive this, I'll explain what I can."

Rattrap realized that bit of information she just told him said that his plan was actually going to work. They were going to get Dinobot back. He wanted to be mad with Chopper-face about putting the strain he was on Ruby's system, but the plan was obviously discussed and agreed upon between the pair. How else would she have known about the memories? With that bolstering him, he quickly climbed out of the mountain and pushed the boulder back over the opening after Ruby exited before the pair, in their beast modes, quickly headed down the mountain side.

* * *

The drones had struggled with a flailing Maximal almost the whole trip back to the citadel. Rhinox's systems flared with pain as his memories altered, making him relive the torture as he had limbs and parts of limbs come in and out of the physical realm. He was unceremoniously dumped at the feet of Megatron, who stood before him with that same viciously pleased smile. With how he convulsed with the pain they saw no need to restrain him.

"I had wished to see this come to pass when it first happened, but I dared not risk tearing apart all my hard work," the Predacon tyrant gloated. "It is so nice to bear witness to the end of your insignificant threat."

Waspinator crashed to the ground next to him, forcefully held to the ground despite the bonds that pinned his arms and wings to his side. Rhinox had focused on his friend, trying to gauge on how damaged his companion might have become. He found such a deep remorse staring back at him as apparently Waspinator was going through his own alterations of his memories.

"Waspinator so sorry! Waspinator not know plan!"

"It's … okay …" the Maximal gasped out before he began to scream in pain again, his left arm violently flickering out of existence.

Megatron and Inferno's laughter echoing around them was suddenly drowned out by a bright flash of light and a powerful screech of an angry animal.

* * *

Ruby and Rattrap crouched in the small clearing that the first beacon had come from, waiting. She had been silent as they waited, listening to the subtle changes of the night chatter of the creatures around them. She was also scolding herself for not thinking that he wouldn't go after Rhinox. Her foe had told her that he knew who had sent her back, that he knew her root, but it was more than that. Rhinox had a heavy hand, even a personal one, in ending the Beast Wars. If Megatron took out that threat then victory would be served on a shiny, die-cast platter.

The animals slowly began to quiet down, making Ruby and Rattrap gain their feet as they looked around. Rattrap's optics widened as he slowly backed away, the figure that stepped out of the foliage right in front of him sending a surge of panic through his chassis.

"Oh my, you shouldn't have, my toy. A rodent appetizer before letting me dine on your sweet core," Rampage said with a dark pleasure as he stepped out of the jungle.

"Business before pleasure, Rampage," Ruby said a little too calmly for Rattrap to believe his audio receptors, openly gawking at her as she actually walked closer to the towering Predacon.

The area became instantly quiet the moment before Depth Charge burst into the small clearing, his angry battle cry filling the area as he crashed into Rampage and in turn a few trees behind them. Rattrap and Ruby both jumped out of the way to dodge the falling timber, but quickly got back to their feet to watch the fray. After a few moments Ruby sighed, broke a sizeable branch off of one of the fallen trunks, and marched over the pair as they rolled around in their struggle. For a lack of anything better to do, Rattrap followed.

Ruby first cracked the limb onto Rampage's head before she turned and did the same to Depth Charge. It was absurd enough to make both of the towering bots halt, actually frozen in their fighting position with Rampage on top with one gripping Depth Charge around the throat while Depth Charge held his other hand up to keep him from clawing his optics out, just stare at her. Shaking the now cracked limb at them with one hand she firmed her look as she spoke.

"Put your bickering on hold. You're both workin' for me tonight, got it?"

"You must be joking," Depth Charge mumbled, looking at her upside down as he held one of Rampages hands away from his throat.

"But, my sweet," Rampage almost pouted.

"But nothing," she snapped, tossing the branch to the side. "You two will have plenty of time to finish your fight later. Right now I need all the heavy hitters I can get my hands on."

"So why not get Primal?" the large Maximal challenged, "Oh yeah, he's trying to find his pet rhino."

"Because he can't track Dinobot, you can. And besides-"

Ruby fought to hold in her scream of pain as she gripped at her torso armor. Dinobot's spark was flaring with worry at the pain of her own spark trying to seize up as her body flickered in and out of existence. Rattrap was at her side as she struggled, Depth Charge and Rampage finally pulling away from each other as they looked up because of the screams of pain echoing overhead.

"Oh, such sweet music to my ears," Rampage chuckled.

Depth Charge harshly punched the Predacon in the shoulder for the comment, making Rampage bow up to return the favor. The only thing that stopped him was Ruby gasping "Stop." They both focused down at her as she struggled to her feet.

"You two still want to fight?" she ground out, slowly walking in the direction the sound came from. "Fine, go fight."

* * *

Rhinox was panting, his optics wide with pain as he held what remained of his left arm close to himself, bits that had been blown or ripped off by Dinobot lay around him in puddles of energon. He was also covered in several deep gashes from Dinobot's optic laser that, too, were leaking the precious blue liquid. The first few strikes were to sever the connections to his legs, leaving him stranded and forced to take the abuse. Every blow, every strike, was at both Megatron's command and enjoyment.

"Fitting," the Maximal got out tightly, "Always figured Predacons enjoyed torture."

"It was always my favorite sport, yeess," Megatron taunted before he back handed Rhinox with his tail weaponry.

Rhinox groaned as he hit the rocky ground, barely able to roll to his side to look up at his tormenters. He would not give them the satisfaction of hearing him beg for mercy. He could; however, stall for time. "You do know that Optimus is probably looking for me by now, along with the others. No doubt you do also realize that if the wrong person sees you, your time stream is in jeopardy."

"There is only one bot that I'm concerned about," the tyrant muttered, kicking the injured Maximal in the abdomen.

Rhinox coughed, folding around the blow before it skidded him a couple feet backwards. "Then … why not end it now?"

"Because I want to see her face right before I wipe her out of existence by ending yours, oh yeess."

He felt his optics sting by how wide they had gone. Megatron apparently only cared for a small handful of hypothetical time rules, but, then again, Predacons always broke the rules. It also gave Rhinox the fuel he needed to buy time.

"How can you be so sure that harming me is harming her?"

Megatron frowned darkly as he glared at the wounded Maximal. "Do you take me for a fool, Rhinox?"

"I can't take you anywhere," the Maximal retorted, only to scream as a laser bolt struck his right leg, blowing off his foot.

Megatron marched up to Rhinox, who was too focused on his missing foot now to really care where the tyrant was standing, and crouched down, grabbing his face with the pinchers of his tail. "Ruby will suffer for your foolishness. You've only sacrificed your own grandsparkling on a fool's errand. Unfortunately, I am through playing games now, yeess. My time is running short for my victory to be assured. You should have done the job yourself if you wanted it done right."

The sound of fighting drew his attention away from his captive, Megatron standing upright as a pleased smile crossed his face. "Ah, yeess, just as I planned. Little Ruby has finally arrived to save her Grand-sparker."

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.**

Dun-dun-DUN!


	10. Ch 10: Dark Glass - 3 (new)

Soon silence surrounded them once more, but the longer it drew on the less Megatron's smile remained. Inferno and Waspinator should have been bringing her back with them by now, and there was no way he could use his communicator without causing issue with his younger self.

"Sounds like my Grandsparkling just handed your fliers their thoraxes," Rhinox chuckled a bit, which ended with a cough.

Focusing down at the Maximal with his one good optic, Megatron growled fiercely.

* * *

Depth Charge calmly dusted his hands off as he looked down at the two Predacon fliers, both twitching when a random surge went through their mangled forms. Rattrap was chuckling while he was kicking Inferno's gun away from his grasping hand.

"Ya remember de plan, Fish Face?"

"Are you going to remind me if I tell you 'no', Rodent?"

"Jus' get to de distraction already!"

"Whatever."

Depth Charge grunted a bit as he reached down, picked up Waspinator, who had parts falling randomly to the ground as he whimpered about his bad day, and pitched him towards the clearing before he and Rattrap followed. They would leave Inferno there, because the ant might actually cause trouble if he remembered anything from the upcoming fight.

* * *

At the sight of poor Waspinator's form entering the clearing from the other side, Ruby rushed in while the three in the center were focused on the handy distraction. Dinobot had actually heard her as soon as her feet touched the rocky ground, quickly charging at her before Megatron and Rhinox had even noticed his vicious growl. Ruby leapt up and flipped over his head as he leaned in to swipe his deadly claws at her midsection, landing on his other side.

Rattrap had revved into the clearing from where Waspinator had made his rough entrance, himself heading straight for Dinobot as well. Megatron growled in anger as he began to power up his weaponry, aiming at the tiny femme. So distracted by the two Maximals fighting his twisted trophy, he failed to realize the huge shadow that loomed up behind him.

Rhinox had been focused on Ruby and Rattrap's fight that he only became aware that Rampage standing behind Megatron when the towering Predacon laughed madly as he grabbed the tyrant by his weaponry before he began to slam him around, knocking down trees and shattering the ground in the process. Before they ended up heading his way, Rhinox found himself scooped up and being carried off. Looking up in his pain filled haze; he was rather surprised to find Depth Charge was the one running at full speed through the thick foliage. The fact that he was being rescued still felt more like a minute surge in his processor before he blacked out.

"I have so much pain that I must return to you, oooooh yeeeesss," Rampage laughed as he gripped Megatron's head with both hands and began to slowly squeeze them together.

Megatron put his hands on Rampage's to try to pull them off, having to drop his weapon to do so. The angry Predacon's laugh was being drown out by the squeal of protest as the tyrant felt his head slowly giving in to the pressure. But he still had a trump card at his disposal.

"Dinobot!"

Dinobot-2 swung his arm backwards as he stood upright, sending Ruby flying off and Rattrap, who had been on his back, to the ground. Turning to face where Rampage had Megatron down on his knees, the twisted Transmetal-2 sneered with pleasure as he opened up the spark compartment on his torso before he moved Rampage's spark core out slightly before he proceeded to squeeze it.

Rampage struggled to keep his hold on Megatron despite the pain that surged through his own form, but as Dinobot put more pressure on his spark core he had to let go. As the mad Predacon fell to his knees, screaming in pain as he grasped the armor plating that surrounded what remained within him, Megatron slowly crawled away.

While Dinobot-2 was distracted though, Rattrap leapt up and dove over Ruby, pressing the detonator in his hand. While he had been on the haunting visage of his friend the Maximal infiltrator had placed several explosive charges, which exploded a split nano-click after Rattrap hit the deck. Their audio sensors were still ringing as they watched the smoking form of Dinobot fall forward, landing on top of what was left of poor Waspinator.

Ruby didn't wait for Rattrap to move off of her, but scrambled along the rocky ground towards Megatron. "Get it done!" she shouted, pointing to the fallen target as she passed by with her left hand, pulling out Dinobot's sword from her subspace pocket with her right.

Rattrap rushed over and leapt onto Dinobot-2's back, pulling out the small device he had backed up Dinobot's memories onto and found the input ports to attach the device. The upload seemed to crawl since he knew that it was only a matter of time as he watched the glowing energy that covered the wound, mending the damage before his optics.

Megatron managed to catch the approaching femme just in time to grab her wrists as she brought the sword down with both hands to take off his head, using her own momentum to fling her away. Rampage grunted as he rushed to catch her before she hit the ground, the pair tumbling to a halt.

Rattrap made the mistake of looking up at the mass of motion and only had a moment to react to Dinobot's body pitching up underneath him, sending him into the surrounding jungle with a shout. Dinobot-2 grabbed his head as the memories fought to secure their in their placement in his processor, the spark within his torso refusing to allow the invasion. He looked over as he heard Rampage screaming once more in pain, but his vision turned red as he saw the tiny femme in his arms showing him concern. With a scream matching fueled by the pain from the internal battle and the rage from what he saw, he charged.

Rampage barely had a moment to meet Dinobot-2 head on, but shoved Ruby into the jungle first. "Run, my toy, I'll find you and retrieve my payment you promised."

Ruby stumbled a bit and glanced back as she saw Dinobot-2 begin to actually to rip Rampage apart, making the huge Predacon resemble Waspinator after a normal day. It was Megatron ordering him to bring her back that ended the mindless rage. When Dinobot-2 focused on her, giving an animalistic scream before he started after her, Ruby began to run.

* * *

Optimus rushed out of the base, flanked by the other three that were at the base with him, when the scanners had detected two incoming Maximal signatures. Primal was angry to find that Ruby and Rattrap had left the base, despite the orders he had given, making him have to change his plans in case it was an elaborate ruse by Megatron to unman the base. The group halted in surprise as the incoming Maximals came into view. The approaching pair was not who they were had expecting.

Depth Charge, in his flying mode with Rhinox on his back, quickly approached the base and hovered just in front of Optimus so he could take the injured engineer into the base before he lost any more energon. The group reacted quickly to get their injured into the CR chamber.

"Depth Charge, take Cheetor and go back to aid Ruby and Rattrap," Primal ordered, not even waiting to hear the excuse as to why only two of them returned.

Despite being covered in mech fluid and liquid energon, the manta ray nodded curtly, turned and rushed out of the base with the scout close behind. Turning back to the chamber, Optimus noted how concerned Black Arachnia and Silverbolt were over Rhinox's condition.

_He was always the glue that held us together, wasn't he?_ Primal thought to himself, knowing that they all owed their lives to Rhinox several times over. With a firm nod, the Maximal commander headed for the entrance. He would back up Depth Charge and Cheetor, just in case this was someone's darker plan to take them out.

* * *

It was the angry snarl behind her kept her going. Luckily her smaller frame was making it easier for her to get through the thick brush. The snapping of tree trunks made her glance back over her shoulder a time to two, but she kept going. It brought back her training days, but she seriously doubted that slapping him on the snout and yelling 'tag' would stop the pursuit.

Ruby screamed in pain as she felt her left leg being shot out from under her, which sent her tumbling into a thick patch of downed trees. With a groan she pulled herself up with her arms, but stared in shock as some of the limbs pulled away, exposing a metallic object that had been buried in the crash. Dinobot-2's animalistic snarl right behind her made her twist around, her body suddenly glowing blue as she yanked the spark extractor out of subspace before he snapped his powerful beastial jaws around her midsection.

* * *

The rain of smoking drone parts around him was one of the first things he became aware of aside from the pain. Also, the source of the angry screech seemed to change position around him. As Rhinox focused up to see Megatron and Inferno battling the massive drone army that swarmed around them, the pair focused on blowing apart their attackers. There were other drones, ones that had not had a chance to become infected with their virus or had been cured of the previous batches they had let loose. They assumed that Megatron would have found a cure for the early version they had infected the first few drones with. It looked as if their cautious measures paid off.

"Get him out of here!"

The voice that broke through the screeching, female in nature and one that he never thought he would never hear again. He tried to look up, to find the phantom, but he felt someone grabbing a hold of him, lift him off the metallic ground, and pull him out of the citadel. Any drones that might have followed disappeared in a bright flash of white-gold light.

* * *

Dinobot, in his beast mode, marched back into the clearing, Ruby dangling limply in his mouth. She was groaning, the spark extractor device loosely bouncing in the grip of her right hand with every step, energon dripping to the ground from the damage where his powerful jaws and sharp teeth tore into her armor like it was paper. Leaning over, Dinobot-2 let Ruby drop from his maw, leaving her groaning on the ground before he transformed into his robot mode.

Megatron marched over, Dinobot's sword spinning slowly in his hand as his single optic focused down at her. "Poor Ruby, but we both knew from the beginning of our little personal war that you wouldn't win, yeess. I will enjoy telling the Maximals as I rip them limb from limb that their only hope was one tiny, insignificant, femme."

With a flick of his wrist, Megatron turned the sword upside down, aiming for the red orb on her torso armor. "Good-bye, Ruby."

* * *

As soon as Rattrap had come to he started heading back towards base. Ruby had, in terms that he usually used on any bot he saw as a threat to his family, promised a painful reprimand if he did not follow her orders to upload the memories and get his wheeled hide out of there before everything got crazy. The only way he agreed to it was her assurance that things were going to be fine as soon as she got Dinobot's spark into the clone's body. He just wondered how it was all going to work with Rampage's spark core already sitting pretty in the frame.

Skidding to a halt, the wheeled rodent looked back at the direction he had come from with a nagging feeling was keeping him from going back to base. He couldn't leave. The last time one of their own faced impossible odds … he never came home. They got Rhinox out of there, hopefully just in time before they had just lost another.

The sudden surge in his spark had him turning around. Dinobot went off alone, fought alone, and nearly died alone. Knowing that Chopper face had a fancy for some depressing reading materials where the hero always seemed to die to prove his point, the one that came to mind right now was where the hero's lady joined him. If Dinobot was that selfish Rattrap would never forgive him.

The sound of a jet engine coming up behind him made the wheeled rodent stop and turn around as Cheetor, Depth Charge, and Optimus came through the foliage. Primal transformed into his robotic mode as he landed, shaking the ground as Depth Charge transformed as well.

"What's going on, Rattrap?" Primal asked quickly. Before Rattrap had a chance to report, a scream cut through the air which sent the animals scattering. "Let's move!"

* * *

Megatron put every ounce of his power and anger into the driving blow that he delivered into the torso of the femme placed before him, only to have her form flicker violently before it and Dinobot's image vanished before his eye.

"What?" he ground out, struggling to pull the sword free from the rock he had managed to embed it into, the spinning blades painfully grinding to a stop. The stomping sound of Dinobot-2 stepping out of the thick foliage in his robot mode, holographic projector in hand, made Megatron begin to fume. His anger quickly turned to shock at the blue glow that started to pour out between the plating on Dinobot's form.

"You are a fool, Megatron," Dinobot informed the Predacon with a powerful snarl, a snap of his wrist closing the projector before he tucked it away. "You failed in your first time to accomplish your goal; you're a fool to believe that you would succeed a second time."

"I will be victorious! You won't stop me again!" Megatron vowed. "I will slay the Maximals and use their heads to decorate my throne chamber. Victory will be-"

The tyrant's monologue ended with a powerful scream as he felt a massive pair of claws grab a hold of the beastial head that covered his torso armor. Looking down he saw the device forcing the plating apart enough for another set to extract from the device to dig further into his armor, ripping apart the protective plating he had in place before something gripped his spark in a powerful hold. Dinobot stabbed his curved claws into the tyrant's shoulders to keep him in place as Megatron struggled to pull free from the device digging into him.

Ruby had come in under Dinobot's form and slammed the spark extractor into Megatron, holding onto the device as Megatron fell to his knees, writhing in pain. As the device grabbed a hold of his spark she watched the tyrant's form flash in and out of existence, and with an anger filled shout she ripped his spark from his torso. The light in his remaining optic died before the frame fell backwards, sliding off of Dinobot's claws with a shrill scrape.

The spark in the device continued to struggle; however, until it shook the spark extractor free from her weakened grip to crash to the ground. As it began to flee the area Ruby watched Dinobot's sword fly through the air from a powerful throw, piercing the spark before it imbedded itself into a tree. As the spark faded out of existence the body before them did as well.

Ruby sank to her knees, blinking her optics in disbelief. It was over. The timeline was no longer in danger. She looked behind her to the bot that had helped her end the threat, only to find him smiling down at her with a predatory look. Dinobot wasn't glowing anymore, meaning that Rampage's spark had successfully taken the form back.

"No!" she cried out, realizing that she had wasted the chance to bring Dinobot back. When Dinobot-2 had bitten down on her Dinobot's spark forcefully left her form to take over the new body before she could extract the spark core. The momentary control he had gained must have utilized the last bit of his power.

Rampage had managed to pull himself back together, and was now looming up beside Dinobot, he too giving her that chilling predatory smile. "Time to play, my sweet. Oh, I promise we will have so much fun."

The scream of an angry feline echoed powerfully through the jungle, making the Predacons look up moments before the Maximals burst into the clearing. Depth Charge crashed into Rampage as Cheetor headed straight for Dinobot. Rattrap screeched to a halt beside her, quickly transforming before he knelt down beside the femme. She was leaking energon from several deep punctures that most likely matched Dinobot-2's jaws, but was focused blankly forward.

"Ruby! Hey, Ruby!" the infiltrator yelled, shaking her a bit out of her shock. She turned her head to look up at her fellow rodent fighter, but the look on her face made his spark feel like it would shatter.

"He's gone," she got out weakly, "He's gone."

Rattrap's jaw dropped as he looked up in time to see Dinobot-2 and Rampage fleeing. Waspinator, who somehow managed to survive the whole ordeal, was slowly pulling himself across the ground with his one good hand.

"What were you two thinking?" Primal demanded with his fists on his hips, "I expect better out of both of you. Instead you both blatantly disobeyed orders."

"I had to try," Ruby snapped, stumbling to her feet and staring up at the towering Maximal, "especially with Rhinox's life at stake I couldn't stand by and do nothing."

Optimus sighed softly, relaxing his stance as he closed his optics. She has proven time and time again that she would give everything, including her own life, for their survival. Opening his optics again he reached down to scoop her and Rattrap up. "Let's get back to base, check on Rhinox, and get you two repaired."

* * *

Rhinox groaned as he started to come to, the dreams of a strange, yet familiar, femme in vibrant fiery orange and gold colors slowly fading, but closed his optics, holding up his now repaired hand, because of the bright light that greeted him as he heard the hiss of the CR chamber door opening. He heard Optimus and Rattrap right outside the chamber, apparently waiting on him to step out. Slowly, because he still felt a few twinges of pain, the engineer stepped out of the chamber and into the cavern.

"How are you feeling?" Primal asked quietly, having knelt down.

"Better than earlier," he mumbled, glancing towards Rattrap. His best friend looked guilty, not quite meeting his optics, nor tossing out a witty remark or two. "What happened?"

"Ruby led a small team to rescue you. Depth Charge got you back to base just in time."

The way Primal went silent told Rhinox that there was a lot more. "Is she alright?"

"Chopper-face's clone tried ta take a bite out of 'er," Rattrap finally spoke up, shifting his feet a bit. "She lost de other spark."

Rhinox's jaw dropped at the news. The heartache had to be terrible for her if the spark had been either option that had come to mind when he first discovered it. "Where is she now?"

"She's been in her quarters since she got out of the repair chamber and found out that you were going to survive," Optimus replied. "No one's had the heart to go interrupt her mourning, but seeing that you're better might cheer her up some."

Nodding, Rhinox quickly excused himself, leaving Rattrap and Optimus to head back to the command center and back to their scanning posts. Her Megatron was there, but maybe in the battle Rattrap and Depth Charge had not noticed the difference. Quickly heading up to the small anti-chamber that over looked the Ark, he knocked on the metal crate she had near the doorway.

"Ruby?" he called out. When silence continued to be his reply he walked into her chamber.

There had been a half hearted attempt to repack Dinobot's belongings, creates still open and half filled as they were scattered around the room. The optic that had sat on the shelf above her desk was missing now. Frowning, he gave the room a once over before he went to search the rest of the base. She had to be somewhere, but after a thorough search he found himself back at the command center.

Optimus and Rattrap turned their curiosity his way as he began to run the internal scanners. "What's wrong, Rhinox?"

Looking back up at his commander, Rhinox gave a grave sigh. "Ruby's missing."

* * *

Her foe might be gone, but she still had work to do. There was only one way to prevent an issue like this from happening again. From everything she had learned from her family, replaying every story they had told her while she was growing up, she knew that she had to do to put the game in her favor. The Maximals were going to win the Beast Wars again, she just needed to hedge her bets.

As the weak sunlight managed to filter its way through the thick canopy of the jungle, Ruby retraced her steps to the group of fallen trees. It took all the effort she could get out of her tiny frame, but she smiled in satisfaction as she managed to clear away the metallic object that had been buried there. A quick check of the computer systems confirmed two things: it was a blank and the locator beacon had been damaged.

As she ran a hand over the top, Ruby nodded to herself. She'd only have one chance to pull her plan off.

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.**

Alright! I think I got this out how it had pretty much been in my head. Love it? Hate it? Let me know.


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